General
October Podcast: Pegasus Leads the Way
Join Kelly Bede from Sky and Telescope Magazine as we explore the wonders of October's night sky. From the Harvest Moon to the elusive Andromeda Galaxy, discover celestial highlights and stargazi...
October Podcast: Pegasus Leads the Way
General •
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Interactive Transcript
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This episode is sponsored by Celestron,
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manufacturer of high-quality telescopes
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and an industry leader in developing exciting optical products
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with revolutionary technologies.
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I'm Kelly Bede of Sky and Telescope Magazine,
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and tonight we're going on the tour of the stars and planets
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that you'll see overhead during October.
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This month we'll celebrate a late harvest moon,
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take a quick look around before dawn,
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look for bits of Halle's comet flashing in the night
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and use the planet Saturn to find celestial treats
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in its vicinity,
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including the incredibly distant and dramatic galaxy.
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So grab your curiosity and come along with me
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on this month's Sky tour.
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October is a great month for stargazing
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because sunset comes pretty early,
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sun rise pretty late
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and nighttime temperatures are generally pleasant.
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So let's start our celestial journey this month
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by taking stock of the moon's whereabouts.
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The month opens with the lunar disk very obvious
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in the evening sky even before sunset.
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It's a couple of days past its first quarter phase
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which came at the close of September.
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Full moon will follow late on October 6th.
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Now ordinarily this would traditionally be called
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the full hunter's moon,
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but as I explained in last month's Sky tour,
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that full moon on October 6th is just a handful of hours
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closer to September's equinox than the full moon
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that occurred on September 7th.
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So this year at least will celebrate the full harvest moon
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in early October.
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We call this the harvest moon because at this time of year,
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the nearly full moon rises only about a half hour later
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each exceeding evening as opposed to the usual 50 minutes.
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It has to do with the shallow slant of the moon's orbit
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with respect to the eastern horizon right now.
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This geometry gives farmers a little extra
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late evening light for harvesting their crops, hence the name.
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The effect is more pronounced at higher northern latitudes
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and less so down south.
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Rounding out the lunar month, last or third quarter moon
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follows on October 13th, new moon on the 21st
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and a return to first quarter on the 29th.
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So if you're infatuated with lunar looking,
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you'll want to be out during early and late October evenings.
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But if you prefer your night's moon free,
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then the middle third of the month will be best for you.
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If planet watching is your thing,
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well, you'll be a little challenged to spot them this month.
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Venus and Jupiter are easy to see actually,
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but you'll have to make the effort to be up well before dawn
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by 6am or so in most places.
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That's not so bad, right?
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Venus will be unmistakable, gleaming brightly,
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low in the southeast.
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It's gradually dropping from its peak
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pre-dawn visibility back in July,
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and it'll still linger into November,
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but then it sinks from view before reappearing
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in the evening sky next March.
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So catch Venus while you can.
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Jupiter isn't nearly so bright,
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but it's high up, more than halfway to overhead
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when dawn arrives.
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You'll find it in Germany,
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accompanying its anchor stars,
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caster and polyx across the sky.
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By month's end, Jupiter will be rising
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not long after midnight,
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getting ready for a great evening showing at year's end.
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Not far from Jupiter are the other bright stars of winter,
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Capella almost overhead,
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Orion to its right,
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and both Prosihan and Sirius to its lower right.
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Pivoting now to the evening sky,
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you have a tiny chance of spotting Mars
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very low in the west southwest,
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about 30 minutes after sunset,
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and even then you might need binoculars
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to tease the red planet into view.
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Your odds improve a bit for seeing Mercury
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in that same location late in October.
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So that once again leaves us with Saturn
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for the evening's planetary entertainment.
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Start looking for it low in the east
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about an hour after sunset at the beginning of the month.
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If you don't spot Saturn right away,
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just give Earth another hour to spin toward east,
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and by 8 p.m. it should be easily in view.
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If you're not sure,
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the nearly full moon will be just two degrees above Saturn
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on October 5th,
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and also close by on November 1st.
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Let's use Saturn as a celestial benchmark
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for exploring this part of the evening sky.
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Saturn and all the constellations surrounding it
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are positioned over the eastern horizon
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at nightfall early this month,
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but by late evening,
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or in late October,
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they'll all swing higher up and closer to do south,
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so pick whichever time suits you.
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Saturn is pretty lonely in this location.
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The only stars comparably bright are Capella,
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which is about eight fists to the upper left,
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and Vega, likewise eight fists to the upper right.
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So if your location is really a wash with light pollution,
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seeing the stars and constellations I'm about to describe
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will be challenging.
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In that case,
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try to find a local spot free of bright lights close by,
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like a local park, a soccer field, or a baseball field.
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Let's start with something easy.
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Look above Saturn by two or three fists
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for a very large box of four stars,
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about one and a half fists on the side
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that are roughly the same medium brightness.
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This simple pattern is known the world over
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as the great square of Pegasus,
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and it forms the body of this famous mythical horse.
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But this horse is weird.
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It's flying upside down for one thing,
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and it has no hind quarters.
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Let me show you what I mean.
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Start with the star on the right corner of the square,
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and look for a loose chain of three or four stars
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that extends to the right and then turns up.
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The star at the end is called Enif,
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an Arabic word meaning nose or muzzle.
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The star at the top of the box
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marks the chest of Pegasus,
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and two loose strings of stars extend upward from there
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to mark the horse's front legs.
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Now the star at the left corner of the box,
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the brightest of the four is called Alfirats,
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another Arabic name meaning naval of the horse.
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For many centuries, this star was considered
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to be both part of Pegasus
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and of the constellation Andromeda,
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which extends to the left.
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But get this, Alfirats is no longer part of Pegasus
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at least officially.
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In 1930, astronomers assigned it exclusively to Andromeda,
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and in fact, it's now Andromeda's brightest star.
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You might recall that she was an ill-fated princess
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in Greek mythology,
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chained to a rock at sea as a human sacrifice,
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but ultimately saved by her hero and future husband Perseus,
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who is conveniently located to Andromeda's immediate left.
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Let's go on a celestial hunt in Andromeda.
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Start by holding out your arm
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and putting your three middle fingers together.
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This will come in very handy, no pun intended.
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Starting with Alfirats,
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look to its left for a somewhat dimmer star
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that's a bit more than three fingers away.
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Now go farther to the left of that star
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by another three fingers to a star
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that's just as bright as Alfirats.
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This star is named Myrak,
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a linguistic corruption of the Arabic word for girdle
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or loincloth,
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presumably keeping Andromeda modestly attired
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while chained to the rock.
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Once you reach Myrak,
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make a 90 degree right turn upward,
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following two faint stars in a line.
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The more distant one is again,
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three fingers from Myrak.
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Now concentrate very hard on the patch of sky
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just to the upper right of this star.
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Do you see a barely there patch of haze in the sky?
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If you do, congratulations.
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You're now gazing at the most distant object
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that can be seen with the human eye.
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It's the Andromeda galaxy,
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comparable in size and mass to our own Milky Way
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and a whopping two and a half million light years away.
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Now if you don't see the galaxy
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or if you can't see the sequence of stars to get there,
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grab any peribonaculars and try again.
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You'll feel justifiably proud
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once you spot it.
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Let's track down one more constellation.
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It's Pisces, both Greek and Roman mythology
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envision fish here,
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but the underlying stories are messy
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and they vary a lot,
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depending on who you believe.
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Anyway, the basic shape is two starry fish
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tied together by a V-shaped cord of stars.
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This pattern is directly below the great square of Pegasus,
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stretching to the left and to the right
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in a large broad V.
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That's about three fists tall and four wide.
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All the stars here are pretty faint,
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so if you can't see them from your location,
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at least you'll know where to look
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when you get out under a dark sky.
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I'd be remiss if I didn't make note
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of the other bright stars you can see
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in October's evening skies.
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The brightest of these are tourists
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is very low in the west in evening twilight.
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It will drop from view about two hours after sunset,
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so don't wait too long to find it.
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And overhead are the widely spaced corners
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of the summer triangle.
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Vega is brightest of the three and farthest west.
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Denneb is very close to overhead,
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and Alterre is a few fists to their south.
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You'll have lots of nights to find
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and enjoy this trio.
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Although it's called the summer triangle,
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you'll be able to follow all three of these stars
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as a slide westward until the end of December.
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Did you get a chance to see
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the Perseid meteor shower back in August?
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It put on a nice show as usual.
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Well, October offers another chance
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to see a meteor shower, though it's not nearly
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as exciting or well known.
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The Orionids is a long lasting shower
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that culminates on the night of October 20th.
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We call them the Orionids because they seem to fan
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across the sky from a point not far
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from the star of Betelgew's in Orion's shoulder.
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These meteors are created as Earth crosses
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the orbit of Halle's comet,
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allowing little bits of dust
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shed by this famous comet
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to slam into our atmosphere at 41 miles per second.
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The circumstances for this year's display
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couldn't be better because there's no moon around.
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Now Orion doesn't rise over the eastern horizon
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until late evening,
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and the meteors are more plentiful
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as the great hunter climbs higher in the sky.
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Honestly, the best viewing will be between two and six a.m.
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But at its best, viewed from a dark location,
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you might expect to see one of these Halle bits
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every five minutes or so.
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At Monsend, of course, is Halloween.
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Go ahead and trot out the pumpkins and fuzzy spiders
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then try doing what I do.
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When trick-or-treaters invade our neighborhood,
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I set up my telescope on our driveway
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so that all those little goblins and their parents
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can take a quick peek through the eyepiece.
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It's always a big hit in my neighborhood
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and you should try it.
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The moon is two days past first quarter
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and Saturn is in a good spot high up to the moon's left.
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And to finish, don't forget to look overhead
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and point out the summer triangle.
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That's about it for this month.
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If you want more tips for viewing the night sky,
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check out our website, skyandtelloscope.org,
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which offers great star and planet gazing activities.
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If you haven't already subscribed,
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you can find these sky tour episodes
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on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube,
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or wherever you listen.
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And please leave a rating or review.
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It'll help others to find the show.
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And if you want to explore the solar system
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and universe more deeply,
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please do check out the full line of binoculars
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and telescopes available at Celestron.com.
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Sky tour is a production of Sky and Telescope,
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a division of the American Astronomical Society
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and it's produced by me, Kelly Bede.
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Next month, we'll spend a little more time
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with some lesser known constellations of the autumn sky.
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Until then, I wish you clear skies.
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you