Homewood's October Sky

Whether with a telescope (ScienceGuy has a 4.5” Dobsonian for hire), binoculars, or your naked eye, the suburban skies of Homewood still offer spectacles.

Comet ISON

     As the comet passes Mars this month, it should be visible in the pre-dawn sky for 4” or larger aperature telescopes. This ScienceGuy will definitely be on the lookout. By Halloween, some predictions say that the comet will be visible to the naked eye!

Jupiter Season Approacheth

     In early October, Jupiter and all of its’ 67 moons will rise around midnight. This will slowly back up to about 10PM by the end of the month. With moderate binoculars (>50mm) or a modest telescope (and a steady hand), you’ll be able to pick out the Jovian moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. These moons will appear in different positions through the course of the month as they orbit this gas giant. With a larger telescope (>6” objective lense), you’ll start to see the equatorial bands of Jupiter.

Look Directly at Uranus

     In early October (best day was October 3rd), Uranus will be at opposition (Earth directly between Sun and Uranus) which will give everyone in Homewood an opportunity to see Uranus. A pair of binoculars or a telescope will be needed, as Uranus has a magnitude of 6.5 (apparent brightness, but 6.5 is just beyond the ability of the naked eye to see objects, even in dark-sky locations). For those of you with StarCharts or star-spotting apps on your fancy phones, you can find Uranus in the constellation Pisces.

Deep Sky Objects

     Low in the southwestern sky you’ll get to see our galactic center in the Sagittarius constellation. There are four great emission nebula you can look for: the Lagoon (M8), the Trifid (M20), the Omega (M17), and the Eagle (M16). Planetary nebulae to look for are the Ring (M57) and the Dumbbell (M27). In the Pegasus constellation, galaxy NGC 7331 will be visible.

     The challenge this month will be to track down NGC 404.(Computer programmers seem to have the hardest time finding this one.) It is just northwest to the star b-Andromeda in the Andromeda constellation. It has a magnitude of 11 and is about 11 million light years from Earth (light from that galaxy left when Earth was in the Miocene epoch when the ancestors of humans had split away from the ancestors of the chimpanzees to follow their own evolutionary path). You’ll need a >6” aperture telescope to see this.