October Skies
The Moon is just past full as the month begins, and a couple of planets are nearby
- By James Edgar
September 21, 2023
Jupiter on the 1st is 3 degrees south, and Uranus on the 2nd is also 3 degrees south. The difficulty in seeing will be the overwhelming bright disk of the Moon. Late in the evening of the 2nd, The Moon is just south of the Pleiades (M45), 1.1 degrees; on the 7th, Pollux is 1.4 degrees north. The 10th sees the bright planet Venus in the early morning eastern sky 6 degrees south of a very thin crescent Luna. The Moon is new on the 14th, bringing on the autumn eclipse season.
The first event is aan annular solar eclipse, where the Moon doesn't completely cover the Sun, so an annulus (ring) appears around the edge. This occurs because the Moon is at apogee a few days earlier-the furthest away in its orbit, and thus appearing smaller than average.
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