What's Up in the Night Sky

October 2025 - Vol. 29, No. 10

This Month's Night Sky - NOTE: The next paragraph describes the sky as it appears at 10 pm EST (11 pm EDT) near mid- month. The sky also looks this way at 11 pm EST (midnight EDT) during the beginning of the month and at 9 pm EST (10 pm EDT) by month's end.

Although the Summer Triangle is still visible in the W, the "Great Square of Pegasus" is now prominent high in the S. Far below, lonely Fomalhaut [FOE-ma-lot] of Piscis Austrinus still glitters near the S horizon. Between Pegasus and the N pole star, Polaris (Ursa Minor), find the familiar "W" shaped asterism of Cassiopeia. If you are fortunate to be viewing from a dark site, you will also see the constellations, Perseus and Auriga, with its bright star, Capella, embedded in a starry band stretching across the night sky from East to West. You are looking at the Milky Way, one of the spiral arms of our galaxy. In the East the constellations, Gemini, with its bright twin stars, Castor and Pollux, and Orion, with its distinctive hour glass asterism, rise above the Eastern horizon. Now the Big Dipper (Ursa Major) dips low in the North.

MERCURY, emerges in the evening sky after superior conjunction last month, beginning the best evening apparition for observers in the southern hemisphere. VENUS, shines in the morning sky, rising about two hours before the Sun. MARS, visible in the evening sky, shines at +1.5 magnitude slipping from Virgo into Libra this month.. JUPITER rises around midnight, shining at -2.3 magnitude by month's end. SATURN, in the constellation of Pisces shines all night. Its rings are nearly edge on as seen from Earth. URANUS is up most of the night as it approached opposition next month. NEPTUNE just after opposition, will be up in the constellation of Pisces. (You'll need a telescope to observe Neptune.)

Review how to determine Angular Measurement.

Calendar of Events

NOTE: For those observers not in the ET zone, convert the calendar times to your zone's time by subtracting one hour for CT, two for MT and three for PT. Don't forget to adjust for Daylight Savings Time when necessary by subtracting one hour from your planisphere's time. Dawn and dusk times must also be corrected. See your local newspaper, TV news, or cable TV's Weather Channel for sunrise and sunset times or check with the U.S. Naval observatory. Unfortunately some of these events may occur during daylight hours in your area.

DATE	EVENT
01	Pluto, 0.05 deg. S. of Moon, occultation from Easter island, southern South America, St. Helena, W. and middle Africa.
02	Venus at perihelion. Ceres at opposition.
06	Saturn 4 deg. S. of Moon.
07	October's full moon is often called the "Hunters Moon" because it is the time of year in North America when the leaves are gone from the trees and deer are easier to spot.
08	Moon at perigee.
10	Moon 0.9 deg. N. of the Pleiades star cluster (M-45). Mercury at aphelion.
13	Jupiter 4 deg. S. of Moon.
15	Moon 1.9 deg. N. of the Beehive cluster (M-44).
16	Alpha Leonis, Regulus, 1.2 deg. S. of Moon, occultation from Greenland, NE Canada, NE tip of USA.
19	The Zodiacal Light or "false dawn" is visible in the E about 2 hours before sunrise. This pyramidal glow is caused by meteoroids, dust particles spawned by passing comets, etc., that have settled into the ecliptic plane (path followed by the Sun, Moon and planets), reflecting the Sun’s light before it rises here. This phenomenon will be visible for the next two weeks. Venus 4 deg. N. of Moon.
21	Orionids meteor shower peak. This shower produces up to 20 meteors per hour. Meteors in this shower are generated by Halley's comet. The orbit of this periodic comet leaves a trail of dust particles on its way to the Sun. This trail of particles remains in this area of space until they encounter the Earth's orbit. This produces the annual shower. This year, the Moon is close to new, so it should be great viewing. Mercury 2 deg. S of Mars.
22	Equinox, the Sun rises due East and sets due West. Autumn begins in the northern hemisphere.
23	Mercury 2 deg. N. of Moon. Mars 5 deg. N. of Moon.
24	Moon at apogee. Venus at greatest heliocentric lat. N.
25	Alpha Scorpii, Antares, 0.5 deg. N. of Moon, occultation from Australia, New Zealand, and W. Antarctica, tip of S. America.
29	Mercury greatest elongation E. (24 deg.) Pluto, 0.1 deg. S. of Moon, occultation from SE Asia, Australia, Melanesia, and W. Polynesia
31	Mercury at greatest heliocentric lat. S.

Lunar Almanac for October 2025

Phases of the Moon	Phase and Date(s)	Best viewed before local midnight
	New 21	Deep Space Objects
	1st. Qtr 29	Planets & Moon
	Full 07	Moon
	Last Qtr 13	Deep Space & Planets

Topic of the month: Taurus, the Bull

Fall evening skies seem dark after the long twilight evenings of Summer. Before the clock strikes twelve, the entire constellation of Taurus is well over the horizon. Taurus is an ecliptic constellation that has been associated with a bull. The bull shape is rather enigmatic to some, for although constellation maps may show horns, it is difficult to see more than one leg with the face of the bull as it charges across the sky. The first magnitude star Aldebaran marks the eye of the bull, nestled in a triangular shaped group of stars that forms the "face" of the bull. The triangular face of the bull is a very important star cluster, the Hyades. The center of this cluster has been measured by astronomers to be located about 150 light years away from the Earth. The fiery eye of Aldebaran is not a member of the cluster, but resides about midway between our Sun and the Hyades center.

constellation of taurus the bull — Constellation of Taurus the Bull

+ + Astra featured the Hyades cluster in February 2016, What's Up in the Night Sky topic.

Taurus lies across the winter Milky Way from the constellation of Gemini. It contains two famous open star clusters, the Pleiades (M-45), and the previously mentioned Hyades star cluster. The Pleiades cluster is also known as the seven sisters, although only 6 of its estimated 250 stars are bright enough to be seen with the naked eye. Nevertheless, it is the brightest star cluster in our sky. The Pleiades cluster is probably about 445 light-years away from Earth. Taurus contains another famous object, the Crab Nebula (M-1). The nebula is a supernova remnant that contains a type of star called, a pulsar of 16th magnitude.

Taurus will cross the sky until next May, carrying the seven sisters and the head of the bowl from the eastern sky to the western sky, until the Bull plunges into the sunset horizon.

--See You Under the Stars!
Astra for Astra's Almanac

The star chart above was generated by Stellarium, a free open source planetarium program. The above image was created by Dawn Jenkins, using Stellarium and graphic editing programs to format the image for this web page. Editing was done for educational purposes only. Stellarium offers much more to amateur astronomers and is being used in planetariums and to guide telescopes in the field. Simple charts like the one above can be used on the internet for non-profit, illustration purposes. Proper credit is due of course! Thank you to the makers of this fine program from Astra's Star Gate.