For October 2026, the moon rises at midnight, half lit at last quarter moon on October 3. The waning crescent moon passes below Mars in the dawn sky on October 5. Then on Tuesday morning, October 6, it will occult bright Jupiter for an hour locally, one of the more interesting and spectacular alignments of your lives in a telescope!
For Northwest Florida, the planet and its four moons are just below the lunar crescent as they rise in the NE about 2 a.m. in the dawn. The moon’s orbital motion about us moves it eastward its own diameter every hour, so by 3 a.m. Jupiter with the naked eye (and smartphones!) just below the moon. In the telescope, the moons to the west (moonward side) are Europa, Callisto (the faint), and Io (appears as a double moon!) The moon’s bright limb may make it hard to see or photograph or video the limb covering them, but give it a try. Europa vanishes at 3:09 a.m. CDT, then Callisto at 3:12, and Io is gone seconds later. Jupiter is much wider, of course, and takes about two minutes to disappear (videos please!) at 3:14 a.m. Here is what to expect then. Ganymede, to the east of Jupiter, will not be covered until about 3:17 a.m.
For the next hour, as noted, the moon moves its own half-degree diameter, so start looking above the earthshine lit dark side about 4 a.m. Since the bright crescent lies below the moons, now they will be much easier to see and record. Here is what to expect for the end of this occultation, the last in a decade for us in the U.S.
Of course, Europa reappears over the dark side first at 4:06, then Callisto (4:08), and now visible and sunlit, Io at 4:10. Again, the moon takes about two minutes to uncover the giant planet, beginning at 4:12 a.m. This should be much easier to record on video. Certainly plan to try (clear skies permitting) myself. Ganymede waits until 4:14 to complete the spectacular, very fast paced events. Go for it!
The moon is new on October 10, and appears back in the evening sky below Mercury at dusk on October 11. Use binoculars about 30 minutes after sunset to catch them very briefly in twilight. The waxing crescent reaches half moon in the evening sky (first quarter in the sense it has gone ¼ way around us since new) on October 18 (for our next Pavilion Stargaze at Pensacola Beach). As waxing gibbous, it passes above Saturn right after sunset on October 24 and is Full, the “Hunter’s Moon” on October 26.
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.
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. 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. This is Andromeda with my See Star S 50.
At October’s end, 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.
Below the head of Pegasus is Aquarius, the Water Carrier, Belowhis 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 EAAA’s James brings us our spooky DSO, NGC 246, the Skull Nebula, now with his 14” scope! Cetus is also currently hosting Saturn, even though it is not one of the zodiacal constellations.
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 yearshence, 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.
The Escambia Amateur Astronomers return to Casino Beach for our Pavilion Stargaze Season on the first quarter moon. Meet us south of the famed Beach Ball Water Tower and bring your smart phone to image the Sun (before sunset with our solar scopes), Moon, and constellations. We have free star charts and will show you what’s up. The final beach gaze, if clear skies permit, will be on the weekend of October 16-17th.
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 othercamera. We currently meet at the north end of the boat ramp to set up our scopes and cameras, While the Ramp 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 on Saturday evening October 13.
For more information on the Escambia Amateur Astronomers, join us on Facebook, visit our online club website and events calendar at: sites.google.com/view/escambiaastronomers. Contact our sponsor, Lauren Rogers at Pensacola State at lrogers@pensacolastate.edu. You can 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!
