Thursday 30 September 2021
sky in october
Draconid Stream is coming, Big Dipper is going
The Big Dipper disappears from view in October, but Cassiopeia and Pegasus Square appear in the night sky. Observers may be surprised by one shooting star or another. In addition, summer time is ending: this means sleeping an hour longer.
At dusk, you can see bright Venus in the southwest. However, due to its close position to the horizon, it is not particularly noticeable. On the ninth of the month, a visit from the narrow crescent of the waxing moon greets the gentle evening sky. In the middle of the month, Venus passes three full moon displays north of the red giant star Antares, the main star of Scorpio. On October 29, it reached its greatest angular distance from the Sun to the east at 47 degrees. It appears half lit in the telescope. One gets the impression of a small crescent moon. At the beginning of October, Venus set a quarter of an hour after 8 pm, at the end of the month already 20 minutes before.
The giant planets Saturn and Jupiter, both in the constellation Capricorn, dominate the first half of the night. Jupiter withdraws from the second half of the night. At the end of October, it fades an hour after midnight on the southwestern horizon. At the beginning of October, the circular planet dips a quarter of an hour to two hours in the morning, and at the end of the month it dips a quarter of an hour before midnight.
Favorable morning view of Mercury
Mercury provides good morning visibility in the last third of the month. Under good conditions, the smallest of the eight planets in our solar system can be seen from the 20th at dawn just above the eastern horizon. At 6.15 am, the ascension of Mercury occurs. After about 20 minutes, she felt herself on the horizon. By the 31st, the planet’s graceful rise will be delayed by a quarter of an hour. At about 7.30 a.m., Mercury fades into the increasing morning light.
The Sun will overtake Mars on the eighth of the constellation Virgo, and then it will be side by side with it. The red planet rises and sets with the sun. So it is in the daytime sky and remains invisible below the horizon at night.
Delta Draconid star meteor
Millions of asteroids and comets race across the solar system. They are distinguished primarily on the basis of their composition; However, the difference is not very clearly defined. steroid They are the smaller siblings of the planets, they are made of rocks and minerals. Because it is small and light, its orbit around the Sun does not necessarily remain constant, but can change due to the gravitational forces of other bodies. The name was given to very small objects with a diameter of less than a few tens of meters metropolitan introduced. If they don’t burn up completely when they enter Earth’s atmosphere, but still make it to Earth, they will banding named. Many tons of cosmic matter arrives on Earth every day, but mostly in the form of dust. comets or tail stars are also remnants of the formation of the solar system and consist of ice, dust, and loose rock.
The Delta Draconid meteor stars appear from 4 to 8 October. They are parts of Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, which is why they are sometimes referred to as giacobinids. The frequency of meteorites varies greatly from year to year. In 2011, about 400 meteors were recorded per hour. An increase in activity was also observed in 2012. You are not immune from surprises. The point of escape or radiation for this stream lies in the constellation of the Dragon. Since the dragon is high in the sky, the dragon is visible all night long. Most of the stars are expected to appear on the evening of the eighth day.
People often ask in which direction they look to see the falling stars. Very simple: meteorites shoot out in all directions from the vanishing point. Therefore, a single observer sees only a small part of all the falling stars.
The moon will reach the new moon position on the sixth at 13:05. On the evening of the eighth day, it approached the Earth by a distance of 363,390 kilometers. On the 14th of the month, you can see the crescent between the planets Saturn and Jupiter, an amazing triple, above the southern horizon. The full moon phase on the 20th occurs at 4:57 pm, with the bright moon in front of the starry background of Pisces. On the 24th day, the moon is 405,620 kilometers from the Earth.
The big car is often covered
In the still starry sky in the evening, you may be looking in vain for the Big Dipper. Because its seven stars are now at their lowest and are just above the northern horizon, which is why they are often covered with houses, trees, or mountains.
For this, the heavenly W, Cassiopeia, stands high in the sky. The middle point of this star W roughly refers to the North Star. A large square of stars could be seen high in the southern sky. It forms the main part of Pegasus, the winged horse from the world of myths. It should help poets and thinkers move their ideas. Pegasus is the guiding constellation of the autumn sky. That is why Pegasus Square is also called Autumn Square. Although there are no particularly bright stars, they are still easy to see.
Andromeda Mythos
The Andromeda Nebula is a galaxy.
(Photo: picture-alliance / OKAPIA KG, Germany)
Andromeda’s star streak joins Autumn Square in a northeast direction. Andromeda is the daughter of the absurd Queen Cassiopeia, who stands high above our heads as the star figure of the celestial sky. Her husband, King Cepheus, is also represented as an inconspicuous constellation. Cassiopeia offended Nereid, the daughters of the sea god Neptune, claiming that they were more beautiful than them. As punishment, the sea god sends a huge tsunami that destroys the coast of Ethiopia.
After a revelation, Princess Andromeda must be sacrificed to the sea monster Cetus. It was formed chained to a rock in front of the shores of Ethiopia. The bloodthirsty kitten is already approaching, which is also represented in the autumn sky as the constellation Pisces. But it is not a whale in the animal sense, but a beast with sharp teeth and claws. In dire straits, the hero Perseus lunges into the air on his winged boots. Shows the severed head of Medusa into Cetus. A terrible sight Cetus instantly freezes to a stone – Andromeda is saved.
The Andromeda Nebula
In the constellation Perseus, the demon star Algol shines, showing a decrease in light every 70 hours. Here two stars rotate around each other and cover each other, causing the brightness to drop. In the constellation Andromeda, you can see a weak and long spot of light in good conditions. This was first described by the Arab Sufi astronomer (903 – 986) in his book On the Fixed Stars. But the 2.5-meter reflecting telescope on Mount Wilson in California was not until 100 years old, was able to establish that the Andromeda Nebula is a huge star system. About 400 billion suns shine here at a distance of 2.5 million light-years.
The Andromeda Nebula is a galaxy, the Milky Way system like our own Milky Way. The Andromeda Galaxy is, so to speak, our neighboring galaxy. Both star systems are close to each other. In just under five billion years, both galaxies will collide, and initially dance around each other. Both spiral galaxies are bent and distorted by tidal forces. The long tails of billions of stars are also being ripped from galaxies. Eventually, both star systems will merge into one giant elliptical galaxy. Its name has already been found: Milkomeda. Such galaxy mergers are frequently observed in the universe. Our Earth would no longer exist and only a small white dwarf star would remain from the Sun.
Central European summer time ends
The sun wanders on the descending branch of its annual orbit and takes ever more southern positions. On the morning of the 23rd, Scorpio entered the sign of Scorpio. It wanders through the constellation Virgo throughout October and changes to the constellation Libra on the last day. The midday high decreases by 11 degrees, and the length of the day decreases by about two hours.
Central European Daylight Time ends on Sunday, October 31, 2021. At 3 a.m., the clock must be set back an hour.
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