For October 2025, the Full (Harvest) moon is on October 6. The previous evening the moon was just above Saturn in the SE twilight. Saturn just reached opposition, rising at sunset, a few days before in September. This is called the Harvest moon, for as the moon moves northward as well as eastward nearest the Autumnal Equinox in September, for several consecutive days it will rise near sunset, giving extra hours of full moon to get the crops in. This year, from October 5-8, this interval is less than 50 minutes each night. Usually, it is almost an hour! On October 13th, the last quarter moon sits just north of Jupiter as both rise about local midnight. The very thin waning crescent moon makes a beautiful dawn pairing with brilliant Venus in the dawn on October 19th. The new moon will offer no interference with the peak of the Orionid meteor shower in the morning skies on October 21st. This Halley comet debris appears to crash into our atmosphere from the direction of Orion, giving us perhaps a meteor every five minutes on that morning every year. The comet itself does not return to the inner solar system until 2061; you have something to live for; this will be a much better return than 1986!
The first quarter moon is October 29th, so trick or treaters can be treated to a fine view of the waxing gibbous moon and Saturn for Halloween stargazers.
Mercury and Mars are low in the SW sky and lost in the Sun’s glare by midmonth. Venus is heading behind the Sun, and low in the SE dawn this month; remember its fine conjunction with the crescent moon on October 19th. Jupiter is in Gemini, at quadrature, 90 degrees west of the Sun, and rises at midnight in the NE. But Saturn is stillwell placed in the SE sky for observing almost all night in Aquarius. However, its rings are still very thin, and will not be wide open again until 2032. Be patient, and enjoy them opening more and more for the next six years. midmonth. But Saturn is well up in the SE at sunset in Aquarius.
For a detailed map of northern hemisphere skies, visit www.skymaps.com.
The Big Dipper falls lower each evening. By the end of October, it will be only the three stars in the handle of Dipper still visible in the northwestern twilight. By contrast, the Little Dipper, while much fainter, is always above our northern horizon here along the Gulf Coast. The pole star, Polaris, has an altitude in the sky that is the observer’s latitude. At the North Pole, it is overhead at zenith, 90 degrees up. At the equator, Polaris lies on your northern horizon, barely visible at only 0 degrees. On the Gulf Coast, it stays a third the way up the northern sky, 30 degrees high. When I go to Chile on October 12-21st, it will be below my northern horizon, but I will be in the Atacama staring up (and photographing with my See Star S 30) that third of the southern sky that we NEVER can see rise here at 30 degrees north, including the Southern Cross and the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. Watch for my report on them in November.
To the southwest, Antares and Scorpius also set soon after twilight, and will be gone by month’s end. East of the Scorpion’s tail is the teapot shape of Sagittarius, which marks the heart of our Milky Way galaxy. The brightest star of the northern hemisphere, Vega dominates the sky overhead. To the northeast of Vega is Deneb, the brightest star of Cygnus the Swan. To the south is Altair, the brightest star of Aquila the Eagle, the third member of the three bright stars that make the Summer Triangle so obvious in the NE these clear autumn evenings. To the east of Altair lies tiny Delphinus, a rare case of a constellation that does look like its namesake. Compare to the dolphin statue on the lawn of Gulf Breeze High School.
To the east, the square of Pegasus is a beacon of fall. It is in the head of the winged horse that the galaxy NGC 7331 hosted a Type Ia supernova, first seen by earthlings on July 14, 2025. As I reported last month, it peaked with the brilliance of ten billionsuns on July 27, a hot sapphire blue brighter than the whole core of its Milky Way like spiral. But as the gas from the demolished white dwarf has spread and cooled since, it is now about 20X fainter and more topaz than the yellow core of NGC 7331, as you see in my latest photo from September 7th with my See Star S 50 (below). This fading is caused by three nuclear reactions making new elements in the star’s final days. First the energy absorbing fusion of two silicon 28 into Nickel 56 caused the collapse. When hottest, Ni 56 in days decays to Cobalt 56, and now, the Co 56 decays more slowly in iron 56.
While this rapid fading may sound like breaking news, remember in reality this actually happened in this far away galaxy 44 million years ago. My, how time flies…
If the southern skies of fall look sparse, it is because we are looking away from our Galaxy into the depths of intergalactic space. The constellation Cassiopeia makes a striking W, rising in the NE as the Big Dipper sets in the NW. Polaris lies about midway between them. She contains many nice star clusters for binocular users in her outer arm of our Milky Way, extending to the NE now. Her daughter, Andromeda, starts with the NE corner star of Pegasus’’ Square, and goes NE with two more bright stars in a row. It is from the middle star, beta Andromeda, that we proceed about a quarter the way to the top star in the W of Cassiopeia, and look for a faint blur with the naked eye. M-31, the Andromeda Galaxy, is the most distant object visible with the naked eye, lying 2.5 million light years distant. South of M31 is the other great spiral in our Local Group of Galaxies. M-33 in Triangulum is seen from a higher viewing angle, so the spiral arms are even more striking. Both are 3 million light years distant, and visible in good binocs.
But Halloween literally means “All Hallows (Saints) Eve,” and we love associating it with spooks and lost souls. Below Andromeda is her hero, Perseus. In his hand is a star most appropriate for Halloween, Algol. This star “winks” at us for six out of every 70 hours, which Arabic astronomers centuries ago found spooky, hence naming it “the ghoul”. We know today it is an eclipsing binary system, an orange giant covering most of its blue companion.
And between Cassiopeia and Perseus in the spiral arm of our Milky Way beyond our own we find the “Heart and Soul”Nebulae, photographed by EAAA member James Schultz (main image above).
The red glow is ionized hydrogen, glowing from the fierce light of very young collapsing stars, heating the interstellar medium to over 4,000 degrees and stripping the electrons from the hydrogen nuclei; the gases are literally fluorescing, just like your older fluorescent lights did before we all converted to more efficient and less pollution LEDs. The old bulbs had to use Mercury, so for the planet’s sake, convert if you have not already. Both H II regions lie about 7,500 light years beyond us, out in the “sticks” of the Milky Way.
Below the head of Pegasus is Aquarius, the Water Carrier, now home to Saturn. Below his western foot is the only bright star of the southern fall sky, Fomalhaut. It means the “mouth of the fish”, and carries on the watery grouping of Pisces the Fish (home to Jupiter now), Capricornus the sea goat, Cetus the Whale in the SE, and Grus the Crane due south now. It is in the sea monster Cetus that James brings us our second spooky deep sky object, NGC 246, the Skull Nebula, now with his 14” scope.
Now instead of star birth in the Heart, we indeed here see the ghost of a dying star. The core has collapsed to a white dwarf, while the outer shrouds are puffing gently away, carrying much of the middle weight elements of our bodies, like carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, calcium, sulfur, and phosphorus. Our own Sun, swelling into a red giant like Antares in five billion years hence, will then undergo such a funeral ceremony. Not a bad funeral wreath, but I still like the Veil Nebula better.
Winter will be coming soon, and in the NE we see yellow Capella rising. It is the brightest star of Auriga the Charioteer, and pair of giant stars the same temperature as our sun, but at least 100X more luminous and about 10X larger than our sun. It lies about 43 light years distant. Again, binoculars come in handy to reveal three fine Messier open clusters, M-36, M-37, and M-38, all within the pentagon of Auriga.
A little farther south, below the foot of Perseus, we find the seven sisters, the Pleiades. Shortly after they rise in the NE, orange Aldebaran rises. It is the eye of Taurus the bull, with the V shaped Hyades star cluster around it making the head of the bull. This colorful giant star is only 2/3 as hot as our yellow sun, but 44X times larger and at 65 light years distant, one of the closest of these monster stars.
For deep skies with much less light pollution, on the weekends of the third quarter moon we continue our cooperation with the Florida State Parks at Big Lagoon State Park. Here the emphasis is on learning to observe and photograph the night sky with binoculars or your own telescopes and smartphones or other cameras. While the Pavilion parking is free, normal entry fees($6) to Big Lagoon still apply, and remember to check in the front gate before it closes at sunset! Please join us at the amphitheater on Saturday evening October 11.
Pensacola State’s Science and Space Theatre presents “Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon” on October 10th at 6 p.m. The recent shows have SOLD OUT. Tickets are $6 for adults and $5 for students. They are back thanks to the support of the Merry Edenton-Wooten Endowed Chair in Space Sciences; Merry’s planetarium artwork for NASA is on display in the Foyer, named in her honor. Please order them in advance; they are available via Purple Pass PSC Planetarium.
For more information on the Escambia Amateur Astronomers, join us on Facebook and visit our online club website and events calendar. Contact our sponsor, Lauren Rogers at Pensacola State at lrogers@pensacolastate.edu. You can also email me at johnwaynewooten@gmail.com Be aware of “pop-up” gazes when clear skies permit at the Airport Approach on Langley and McAlister. They are announced on the EAAA’s Facebook pages; all are short notice, due to weather conditions. Join us!
