A Month Of Celestial Wonders
Summary
This month’s night sky features Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, along with the Draconid and Orionid meteor showers and the October full moon and Bijaya Dashami. Astronomers also report a possible aurora signal from the exoplanet Beta Pictoris-b detected by the MeerKAT radio telescope array.
Key Points
- Mercury and Venus remain hard to see this month, while Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune appear at different times in the October sky.
- The Draconid meteor shower peaks around 7 October, and the Orionid shower peaks on the night of 21–22 October.
- The article notes the new moon on 10 October, the full moon on 26 October, and Bijaya Dashami on 21 October.
- Astronomers using MeerKAT in South Africa report a possible aurora-linked radio signal from the exoplanet Beta Pictoris-b.
