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Sky Highlights and NEKAAL Events for OCTOBER 2015
October 4 – Last Quarter (moon absent from evening sky)
October 10 – OPEN HOUSE at Farpoint Observatory, JOIN US beginning 7:30 pm
October 12 – New Moon
October 20 – First Quarter
October 12 – NEKAAL General Meeting, Topeka Library, JOIN US at 7:00 pm
October 27 – Full Moon
PLANETS in October 2015
Evening Sky:
Midnight:
Neptune – in southwest
Uranus – in south
Morning Sky:
Uranus – in west
Mercury – in east
Venus – in east
Mars – in east
Jupiter – in east
CONSTELLATIONS well placed in evening during October 2015
North to South, at 9-11 pm:
Ursa Minor, the Little Bear, also the Little Dipper
Draco, the Dragon
Cepheus, the King of Ethiopia
Lyra, the Lyre
Cygnus, the Swan
Delphinus, the Dolphin
Sagitta, the Arrow
Aquila, the Eagle
Capricorn, the Sea-Goat
The Summer Triangle continues nearly straight overhead (near the zenith) in the evenings.
No bright planets in the second half of this month's evenings. But you can't miss extremely brilliant Venus in the morning twilight!
No comets visible in binoculars from Kansas this month. Best telescope bet this month is comet PANSTARRS (C/2014 S2), visible in Cepheus at magnitude 11-12 and brightening slowly. Should be in Ursa Minor (little dipper) by Halloween. You'll probably need a 6“ telescope or larger. You might also still find comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2) moving from Corona Borealis into Hercules, high in the sky after evening twilight.
The Orionids meteor shower peaks on the night of October 21. The moon sets about midnight, which is ideal as the Orion constellation and the meteor shower's radiant will be high enough in the sky after about 2 am, and the maximum rate will be 4-6 am. Look in the southeastern sky.