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Tuesday, October 24, 2017

 

The Sky This Week - Thursday October 26 to Thursday November 2

The First Quarter Moon is Saturday, October 28. Jupiter is lost in the twilight.  Mercury climbs higher in the evening twilight. Saturn is visible in the early evening in the heart of the Milky Way.  Venus is now very low in  the morning twilight while Mars rises higher.

The First Quarter Moon is Saturday, October 28.

Evening sky on Saturday October 28 looking north-west as seen from Adelaide at 20:08 ACDST  (30 minutes after sunset). Mercury is low above the horizon in the twilight.

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time (30 minutes after sunset). (click to embiggen).

Mercury is setting in early evening and is above the western horizon in the twilight. Mercury is becoming more prominent, but you will need a clear level horizon to see it at its best.

Jupiter is lost in the twilight.

Evening sky on Saturday October 28 looking west as seen from Adelaide at 21:13 ACDST, 90 minutes after sunset.

The inset shows the telescopic view of Saturn at this time. Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time. (90 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen).

Saturn was  at opposition on June the 15th, when it was biggest and brightest in the sky as seen from earth. Saturn is visible form most of the evning evening setting around 11:30 pm local time. Saturn is a good telescopic target from 9:00 pm daylight saving time until around  10:00 pm daylight saving time. It is poised next to the dark rifts in the Milky Way and is in a good area for binocular hunting. Although still high in the early evening sky, Saturn continues to sink into the western evening skies as the week progresses.  Saturn's rings are visible even in small telescopes and are always good to view. .

The constellation of Scorpio is a good guide to locating Saturn. The distinctive curl of Scorpio is easy to see above the north-western horizon, locate the bright red star, Antares, and the look to the left of  that and slightly above, the next bright object is Saturn.

Morning sky on  Saturday October 28 looking east as seen from Adelaide at 5:51 ACDST (30 minutes before sunrise). Venus is bright just above the horizon and forms a line with Mars.

 Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at the equivalent local time (that is 30 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen).

Venus  is lowering in the morning sky. This week Venus forms a line with  Mars. It is becoming much harder to see Venus in the early twilight, and you will need a clear unobstructed horizon to see the Venus low in the twilight. 

 Mars is climbing higher the twilight, and is now reasonably visible in the twilight. It is still seen best from a flat, clear horizon though.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/

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