{"id":2880,"date":"2021-10-02T06:59:41","date_gmt":"2021-10-02T06:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/?p=2880"},"modified":"2021-10-02T06:59:41","modified_gmt":"2021-10-02T06:59:41","slug":"griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-october-31-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/2021\/10\/02\/griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-october-31-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Griffith Observatory Sky Report through October 31, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/strong><\/a>LISTEN to this week\u2019s Sky Report<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Oct2021_SR.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between October 1 and October 31, 2021. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California.<\/p>\n

Mercury<\/strong> starts the month in the evening sky. On October 1, the sun sets at 6:37 p.m., PDT, and Mercury sets at 8:06 p.m., PDT. Within a few days the planet is too close to the sun to be observed. During the last two weeks of October Mercury appears in the morning sky. The planet reaches greatest western elongation on the 25th<\/sup>. Mercury is then farthest from the sun. On that date, the planet rises at 5:37 a.m., PDT, and the sun rises at 7:07 a.m., PDT. Never observe Mercury when the sun is in the sky, for the risk of damage to the eyes is great.<\/p>\n

Venus<\/strong> is in the evening sky. On the 1st<\/sup>, the planet sets at 8:35 p.m., PDT. On the 31st<\/sup>, the sun sets at 6:01 p.m., PDT, and Venus sets at 7:33 p.m., PDT. The planet offers a small disk and appears as a half-phase when viewed through a telescope. Venus slowly increases in size from 19 arcseconds to 26 arcseconds, while at the same time the gibbous phase slowly gets thinner, from 62 percent to 48 percent. On the 29th<\/sup>, Venus is at greatest eastern elongation. The planet then appears farthest from the sun.<\/p>\n

Mars<\/strong> is close to the sun and unobservable until mid-November, when it appears in the morning sky.<\/p>\n

Jupiter<\/strong> sets at 3:09 a.m., PDT, on the 1st<\/sup>, and on the 31st<\/sup> it sets at 1:14 a.m., PDT, and so it will be visible all evening. A telescope will reveal features on the disk and the four Galilean moons, which travel in a rough line east to west across and behind Jupiter.<\/p>\n

Saturn<\/strong> sets at 1:53 a.m., PDT, on the 1st<\/sup>, and on the 31st<\/sup> the planet sets at 11:59 p.m., PDT. The planet is well placed for observations in the evening sky. A telescope will reveal Saturn\u2019s disk, its rings, and perhaps its brightest and largest moon, Titan.<\/p>\n

Uranus<\/strong> is at Right Ascension 2h<\/sup> 43m<\/sup> 49s<\/sup>, declination +15\u00b0 24\u02b9 59\u02ba on the 15th<\/sup>. The disk of Uranus is only 3.8 arcseconds wide, and so a telescope of magnification 150x is needed to show it.<\/p>\n

Neptune<\/strong> is at Right Ascension 23h<\/sup> 27m<\/sup> 31s<\/sup>, declination 4\u00b0 46\u02b9 34\u02ba on the 15th<\/sup>. The disk of Neptune is only 2.4 arcseconds wide, and so a telescope with a magnification of 150x is needed to show it.<\/p>\n

New moon occurs on the 6th<\/sup>, first quarter on the 12th<\/sup>, full moon on the 20th<\/sup>, and last quarter on the 28th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

SPECIAL EVENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Orionid meteor shower<\/strong> peaks from the night of October 20th<\/sup> through the morning of October 21st<\/sup>. It is named after the constellation of Orion the Hunter, where the meteors appear to originate. The Orionids usually produce 10 to 20 meteors per hour, but the full moon will interfere with observations.<\/p>\n

Follow\u00a0All Space Considered<\/a> and\u00a0Griffith Observatory<\/a> on Twitter for updates on astronomy and space-related events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LISTEN to this week\u2019s Sky Report https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Oct2021_SR.mp3 This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between October 1 and October 31, 2021. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California. Mercury starts the month in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-skyreport"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2880"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2882,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880\/revisions\/2882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}