The Sky this Week
Highlights Oct 28 to Nov 3
- Daylight savings ends next Sunday morning which means it will get dark really early!
- Comet 17P Holmes is amazing!
International Space Station
No passes this week.
The Sun
The Sun rises from 7:27 MDT to 7:34 am MDT this week. It sets 6:06 to 5:58 pm MDT. The solar disk is spotless today (Sunday). The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center forecasts that activity will remain at very low levels.
The Moon
The Moon transitions to third quarter on Thursday, November 1st at 3:18 pm MDT.
The star Regulus in constellation Leo is occulted by the Moon shortly after 5 am early Saturday morning and re-appears about an half hour later.
The Planets
Mercury reappears in the morning sky
Venus shines brilliantly high up in the east before sunrise at magnitude -4.5. It appears as a half disk.
Mars rises around 9:30pm and is good position for viewing and imaging around 1 am. Its now about 12 arc min across. Some surface details and northern polar hood can be seen on a good night.
Jupiter is too low for good views and sets early.
Saturn is above Venus in the east in early morning (magnitude +0.8).
Uranus is constellation Aquarius and is magnitude 5.8.
Neptune is in Capricornus and is magnitude 7.9.
Pluto at magnitude 14 is no longer in for good position for viewing and sets before dark.
Dark Sky
We get some dark sky this weekend. Friday evening the Moon rises after midnight (1:25 am MDT Sat.) and on Saturday evening it rises at 1:35 am MST (assuming I did the conversion to MST correctly). That about 6 hrs in the dark.
Comets
17P Holmes is even more amazing. Its now maybe 6 arc min wide. Even in 7×50 binoculars you can easily see the core and surrounding coma. Be sure to check it out! See the SkyHound comet pages for location.
Meteor Showers
The Orionids meteor shower continues through Nov 7. The peak was Oct 21. Sporadic rates are still high.