OCTOBER 2024

Moon phases

Phase Date
New Moon Thursday 3rd
First Quarter Friday 11th
Full Moon Thursday 17th
Third Quarter Thursday 23rd

Moon distances

Lunar apogee (furthest from Earth) is on Thursday 3rd at 406,161 km.

Lunar perigee (closest to Earth) is on Thursday 17th at 357,175 km.

Planets

Mercury is not visible this month as it is too close to the Sun after its passage behind our star.

Venus is now the 'evening star' seen from 7:50pm low in the west at dusk before setting about 10:30pm.

Mars can be seen in the east from 2:30am and before fading from view in the morning light by 6am.

Jupiter is visible from 1am in the north-east after which it will be lost to view in the north by 4am in early dawn light.

Saturn can be seen from around 8:15pm in the north-east and as it traverses to the north it will disappear by 6:15am.

Meteors

The Orionids appear from the 15th-29th but peak on the 21st-22nd with perhaps 30 meteors per hour from midnight until dawn. Centred on Orion near the red supergiant star Betelgeuse, they are typically very fast and bright entering the atmosphere at 66 km per second and vaporising 100 km above the surface leaving persistent trails. 

Stellarium view for 1am AEDT. The three bright stars of OrIon's belt (or base of the Saucepan) and the red star Betelgeuse below will guide you to the Orionids shower. Museums Victoria/Stellarium

The Orionids shower was first recorded by the Chinese in 288 AD and is associated with Comet Halley. In 1705, Edmund Halley after studying records of some comets that seemed to re-occur, used Isaac Newton's new laws of motion to calculate the comet's orbit predicting a return in 1758 (which he did not live to see). Every 75 years Comet Halley passes through the inner solar system leaving a trail of particles for Earth to intersect twice a year - the April/May Eta Aquarids and the October Orionids.

Stars and constellations

In the north

As the year progresses we see Aquila (the Eagle) and its principal star Altair (Alpha Aquilae) directly north but Lyra (the Lyre) and its bright star Vega (Alpha Lyrae) have left our northern skies this month.

In the west

Scorpius is now moving down to the west with the red-giant star Antares the middle of three stars that mark the scorpion's body. High above following the scorpion is the asterism 'the teapot' which gives you the position of the bow and arrow held by the centaur Sagittarius.

In the east

Formalhaut in Piscis Austrinus (Southern Fish) is the bright evening star in the east this month. But as spring ends and we move towards summer we will progressively begin to see from the north-east to the south-east a rich collection of night sky objects:

• The beautiful Pleiades cluster (also known as the Seven Sisters).
• Taurus the bull with red giant star Aldebaran.
• The inverted Orion the hunter with the right way up 'Saucepan' and red supergiant Betelgeuse.
• Canis Major and the brightest night-time star Sirius (also known as The Dog Star).

In the south

In a dark sky in the south-east are the isolated Large and Small Clouds of Magellan (our galaxy's nearest neighbours) as well as the vast band of billions of stars and dark dust clouds that make up what we can see of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. In the evenings this month it runs in a broad arc from south to north. From our location about 28,000 light years from the centre of our disc shaped galaxy we have an edge-on view along the plane of the galaxy where the density of stars is greatest. As you look away from the Milky Way to either side of the sky you see far fewer stars. In those directions you are peering through only a thousand or so light years out into intergalactic space, to the north or to the south of the galactic plane. We are still trying to fully understand the size and shape the Milky Way.

On This Day

1942, first object to reach space, the experimental V2 ('Vengeance') rocket, was launched from Peenemünde, Germany in a brief flight over the Baltic.

4th 1957, Sputnik (USSR) was launched to become the first artificial satellite.

4th 2004, SpaceShipOne was launched as the first private spacecraft into space.

5th 1923, Edwin Hubble (USA) established that M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, is separate to our own Milky Way Galaxy.

7th 1959, first photos of the moon's far side are taken by Luna 3 (USSR).

9th 1604, a Type1A supernova 20,000 light years away in constellation Ophiucus is visible from Earth, and on 17th Johannes Kepler observes and publishes his account of the new star. It is the most recent supernova visible to the naked eye in our galaxy.

10th 1967, the United Nations' Outer Space Treaty on the peaceful exploration and use of space was established. By now 109 nations are signatories and several other agreements and conventions have been created to cover space law.

11th 1958, Pioneer 1 (USA), a battery- powered probe aiming for lunar orbit, fails to reach escape velocity and burns up.

11th 1968, first crewed Apollo mission, Apollo 7 (USA), launched into Earth orbit in test of Saturn V rocket and Command and Service Module (CSM).

12th 1964, USSR's Voskhod 1 ('Sunrise') was the first spacecraft with a crew of more than one. In this case, three cosmonauts who orbited for 41 hours.

13th 1773, the Whirlpool Galaxy M51a, 31 million light years away in constellation of Canes Venatica, is discovered by astronomer Charles Messier.

18th 1967, Venera 4 (USSR) is the first probe to analyse the atmosphere of another planet when it does so at Venus.

19th 1910, birth of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar who had major insights into stellar evolution and black holes.

24th 1998, Deep Space 1 (USA) probe was launched to test innovative technologies, including an ion engine, while visiting Asteroid Braille and Comet Borrelly.

27th 1994, first sub-stellar object orbiting a star is found, a brown dwarf at Gliese 229.

29th 1991, Galileo probe (USA) is the first to visit an asteroid, Gaspra 951, on its way to Jupiter.

31st 2000, Expedition 1, first resident crew of the International Space Station, arrived by a Russian Soyuz craft for a 136 day stay lasting until March 2001. The three-person crew (one American and two Russians) made the station fully operational, hosted three visiting US Space Shuttles, and received two Russian Progress supply vehicles.