Whole sky chart at 11pm, 15th October.

Nightwatch

October, 2005

This month’s big event is the partial eclipse of the sun, which takes place on the morning of Monday 3^rd of October.

Another date for the diary is the 30^th of October, when British Summer Time ends and clocks need to be put back one hour.

Mercury is very close to the sun this month and sets less than 30 minutes after sunset, making it very difficult to observe.

Venus is low in the southwestern sky immediately after sunset, and sets around an hour later.

Mars can be seen all through the night during October, it rises in the early evening in the northeast and can be spotted because of its distinctive red-orange hue.

Saturn can be seen from around midnight when it rises in the northeast, until dawn when it is high in the southern sky.

The second half of October is the ideal time to go meteor spotting, with the Orionid meteor shower peaking around the 20^th, when up to 20 meteors may be seen every minute.

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