See The ‘Hunter’s Moon’ Pass Saturn And A Super-Bright Jupiter: The Naked Eye Night Sky This Week

Science See The ‘Hunter’s Moon’ Pass Saturn And A Super-Bright Jupiter: The Naked Eye Night Sky This Week Jamie Carter Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I inspire people to go stargazing, watch the Moon, enjoy the night sky Following New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories. Got it! Oct 2, 2022, 08:00pm EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The full “Hunter’s Moon” rises behind lower Manhattan and One World Trade Center in New York City on .

. . [+] Halloween on October 31, 2020 as seen from Greenbrook Township, New Jersey.

(Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images) Corbis via Getty Images Each Monday I pick out the northern hemisphere’s celestial highlights (mid-northern latitudes) for the week ahead, but be sure to check my main feed for more in-depth articles on stargazing, astronomy, eclipses and more. What To Watch For In The Night Sky This Week: October 3-9, 2022 When is the next full Moon? This week the Moon will wax from its seemingly half-lit First Quarter phase to Full, peaking as a fine -looking “Hunter’s Moon” on Sunday. Before it does you can watch it rise later each day, turning from an afternoon Moon to an up-all-night orb.

You can also watch it pass the giant planets and, if you’re lucky, glimpse the tiny planet Mercury at the weekend. Here’s what’s going on in the night sky this week: Saturn, Jupiter and Mars along with a crescent moon rise in the pre-dawn sky above the skyline of . .

. [+] lower Manhattan and One World Trade Center on March 18, 2020 as seen from Jersey City, New Jersey. (Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images) Getty Images Wednesday, October 5, 2022: Moon and Saturn Look southeast around sunset tonight and you’ll see an 81%-lit waxing gibbous Moon.

As the twilight deepens the sixth planet Saturn will emerge about 4° above it. You’ll need a small telescope to glimpse its beautiful ring pattern. Its radius is about 10 times that of Earth.

Saturday, October 8, 2022: A morning Mercury, evening Moon and Jupiter Get up one hour before sunrise and look due east for a rare chance to easily see Mercury. This morning it’s at its greatest elongation west, about 18° from the Sun. That’s just enough to see it in a reasonably dark sky.

MORE FOR YOU New Research Finds A Connection Between Domestic Violence And These Two Personality Disorders This Scientist Helps Andean Forests And Ecuador’s Women In STEM Exceptional Fossil Preservation Suggests That Discovering Dinosaur DNA May Not Be Impossible Come back at sunset and look at the same patch of sky for a now 99%-lit waxing gibbous Moon—just hours before turning full—rising while looking a beautiful orangey color. Soon after twilight takes hold you’ll see the emergence of Jupiter, the giant planet, just 2º above the Moon. Sunday, October 9, 2022: A full ‘Hunter’s Moon’ The first full Moon of fall, the “Hunter’s Moon” in October is sometimes called the “ Sanguine Moon, the “Dying Grass Moon” and the “Travel Moon.

” Watch it majestically rise into a twilight sky tonight, which will occur about 10-20 minutes after sunset across Europe and North America. A composite image depicting the path and position of the low waxing crescent Moon of autumn across . .

. [+] the southwest evening sky over five nights, Sept 30 to Oct 4, 2019. The ecliptic — the blue line — is always low in the sky at this time of year, placing the Moon and planets low as well in the evening twilight.

This was shot from my home in southern Alberta at latitude 50° N. Earthshine is just visible on the dark side of the Moon in the later images. The base panorama image of the sky and landscape is from Oct 1, which also provides the Moon image second from the right.

The Sept 30 (farthest to the right), plus Oct 2, Oct 3 and Oct 4 moons (to the left, from R to L) are added in with separate exposures taken from exactly the same spot and with the same camera and lens on the other nights, with those images layered and masked into the Oct 1 sky. The Moon positions are close to the actual positions relative to the horizon and to Jupiter, bright at left. The ecliptic line looks straight but is actually a shallow curving arc.

The ecliptic line is correctly placed below the Moon, as the Moon’s path does not coincide with the ecliptic but is tilted 5° to the ecliptic and it was above the ecliptic on most of these nights, but approached and crossed the ecliptic on Oct. 4. Jupiter, however, is on the ecliptic.

Antares and the stars of Scorpius are also visible in the deep twilight. The base image is cropped from a panorama of 5 images stitched with Adobe Camera Raw. All with the Canon EOS R and 35mm Canon L lens.

While this was taken in early October the field has snow from an unseasonably early snowfall and winter storm which didn’t clear until Sept 30, preventing me from getting the Sept 29 Moon very close to the Sun. (Photo by: Alan Dyer/VW PICS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Object of the week: the E cliptic Are you ready to see the solar system? Go outside in the day. Draw an imaginary line from where the Sun rose in the east, through Jupiter and Saturn, and to where the Sun will set in the west.

That line is called the ecliptic . It’s effectively half the solar system. To see the other half, go outside in the dark.

The other half of the ecliptic is much lower in summer and fall (for the same reasons that the Sun is low in winter and spring), but it’s only here on the ecliptic that you’ll ever see planets. That’s because the planets orbit in the same flat, fried egg-shaped plane around the Sun. The Moon’s orbital path around the Earth is tilted 5° to the ecliptic, but intersects it twice each month.

When that occurs at New Moon or Full Moon a solar or lunar eclipse occurs—hence the name. Cassiopeia is a northern constellation which represents a queen in Greek mythology. Photograph by .

. . [+] Jamie Cooper.

(Photo by SSPL/Getty Images) SSPL via Getty Images Constellation of the week: Cassiopeia Here’s a famous constellation you can find almost every night throughout the year. Above the northeast every night this month is the unmistakable shape of a “W” on its side. To check you’re looking in the right place find the the uppermost “V” shape and think of it as an arrowhead.

Cassiopeia is always in the northern hemisphere’s night sky because it appears to revolve around the North Pole star. Times and dates given apply to mid-northern latitudes. For the most accurate location-specific information consult online planetariums like Stellarium and The Sky Live .

Check planet-rise/planet-set , sunrise/sunset and moonrise/moonset times for where you are. Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn .

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