What’s Up in the Night Sky? October

Fred Barrett | Oct 05, 2014

What a great month! There are two big events happening. First, there is a total lunar eclipse occurring during the early morning hours on October 8. The eclipse begins at 5:15 a.m. and totality starts about 6:20 a.m. Mid-eclipse occurs about 6:25 a.m. and it ends close to 7:20 a.m. Get up a half hour sooner for work (as I will) or get up earlier for your daily chores and watch the show. Go out and take a moment to view the result of the fantastic dance of the Earth, Sun and Moon as they move about their orbits.

The second big event is on the afternoon and night of October 11. It’s the 1st Annual Maberly Star Party! It’s at the Maberly Fair grounds at the corner of Hwy 7 and regional road 36. That junction is about 22 Km west of Perth. Plenty of parking is available at the front. It’s nice and dark and set up will be at the back of the fairgrounds where car lights won’t mess up dark sky conditions. If you bring a flashlight, please put a red filter over the front so night vision can be protected. Preparations are going well. All we need is good weather! Please! Please! Don’t forget that in our area we often have clouds in the afternoon but they usually clear out by evening. If it’s raining, we have a rain date for the following weekend on Oct. 18. The day plan is to observe the Sun with special telescopes from about 2 p.m. on and as evening darkness arrives we will have other telescopes to observe some beautiful Deep Sky Objects (DSOs). If you have any questions give me a call at 613-268-2960 or email me at the address at the bottom of this column. Some sandwiches, soda pop and lots of coffee and tea will be available at very modest prices at the snack booth. This event is free but if you want to toss in a few bucks to support the Maberly Agricultural Fair, there will be a donation bucket at the snack bar. You don’t need a telescope to come to the Star Party. There will be plenty of them there to have a look through. If you have a telescope tucked away at home, please bring it and any questions you might have about how to get the best out of your telescope will be answered by experienced amateurs from Ottawa, Kingston and the Maberly area. There might even be some astronomers from the province of Toronto!

On October 5, 30 years ago, Marc Garneau became the first Canadian to go to space – a very proud moment for our country.

On October 8, as mentioned above, we have a total lunar eclipse early in the morning. An added example of the interaction of the Moon, Earth and Sun happens in late afternoon on October 23 when the Moon casts its shadow on the Earth in the form of a partial solar eclipse! The maximum depth of the partial eclipse happens at sunset but we may be too east to see the maximum partial penetration. Remember; do not look at the Sun directly! Use #8 welders glass or project an image of the Sun on a piece of paper through binoculars or through a pinhole onto a piece of paper. Be careful!

This month’s full Moon is on the 8th – a total eclipse only occurs when there is a full Moon. This month it is called the Hunter’s Moon. I can hear gun shots going off in the distance as I write this – practice time!

On October 17 the Moon will be 9 degrees to the right of Jupiter in the morning. Look about halfway up the southeast sky. This will be to the right of the Sickle of the constellation Leo.

Comet “Siding Spring” or C/2013 A1 will be very close to Mars, about 1 degree, on Oct. 19. You will definitely need binoculars to see it. Look low in the southwest at the end of twilight. It will be so close to Mars that it will miss it by only 82,000 miles (132,000 kms)!

The Orionid meteor shower will put on a modest show in the early hours of the 20th.

In the morning twilight on the 22nd and low in the east, the crescent Moon will be 5 Degrees above Mercury.

The Zodiacal light will appear as a pyramid of light display in the east with Jupiter as a background, about 2 hours before sunrise. Dark skies are a must!

On the 28th, the crescent Moon will a lovely sight 7 degrees above Mars and to the right of Sagittarius. This display will occur about an hour after sunset and in the south-south west.

Brrrrr! Winter is coming! On Oct. 4, the Sun rises at 7 a.m. and sets at 6:35 p.m. On Oct. 25, the sun rises at 7:30 a.m. and sets at 6 p.m. The length of daylight is being squeezed shorter and shorter!

Most of us are familiar with Einstein’s famous equation that states “E” or energy, equals “m” or mass, times “c” the speed of light squared. The Sun fuses hydrogen into helium and only a tiny bit of energy is produced and we know that the Sun is a pretty hot presence in the sky. Let’s translate that into something that we can compare with everyday life. What would be the energy value if all the mass, in all the atoms, in a hunk of matter was converted to energy? Me, for example! I weigh about 188 pounds. If I were converted entirely into energy, I would be the equivalent of 1.80 Million Kilotons of TNT. The bomb that leveled the city of Nagasaki in Japan at the end of the Second World War was the equivalent of 21 Kilotons of explosive! There’s an incredibly huge amount of energy wrapped up in each atom of matter!

Don’t forget the Star Party!!!

You may contact Fred Garrett through this paper or email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Beginner’s Observer’s Guide by Leo Enright is available at the Sharbot Lake Pharmacy or by contacting the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada www.rasc.ca/publications, subscriptions for our very own excellent Canadian astronomy magazine, Sky News, are also available from RASC..