{"id":2999,"date":"2023-10-05T00:33:25","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T00:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/?p=2999"},"modified":"2023-10-05T00:36:43","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T00:36:43","slug":"griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-october-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/2023\/10\/05\/griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-october-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Griffith Observatory Sky Report through October, 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/strong><\/a>LISTEN to this week\u2019s Sky Report<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/OCT_2023_Sky_Report.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between October 1 and October 31, 2023. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California.<\/p>\n

Mercury<\/strong> rises at 5:41 a.m., PDT, and the sun rises at 6:48 a.m., PDT, one hour seven minutes later, on the 1st<\/sup>. The planet is only 5.7 arcseconds wide, and so a magnification of 200x is needed to see its disk. Within a week, Mercury will be close to the sun and unobservable for the rest of October. Do not observe any planet when it comes close to the sun, for the danger to the eyes is great.<\/p>\n

Venus<\/strong> rises in the east-northeast at 3:22 a.m., PDT, on the 1st<\/sup>, three hours 26 minutes before the sun rises. The planet is 36-percent illuminated and 32 arcseconds wide. On the 31st<\/sup>, Venus rises in the east at 3:32 a.m., PDT, and the sun rises at 7:12 a.m., PDT, three hours and 40 minutes later. Venus is 54-percent illuminated and 22 arcseconds wide.\u00a0 Venus remains in the morning sky until February.<\/p>\n

Mars<\/strong> moves from Virgo the Maiden into Libra the Scales on the 23rd<\/sup>. On the 1st<\/sup>, the sun sets at 6:38 p.m., PDT, and Mars sets in the west at 7:17 p.m., PDT, 39 minutes later. Mars is only 3.6 arcseconds wide and so is too small to be seen in most telescopes. On the 31st<\/sup>, the sun sets at 6:01 p.m., PDT, and Mars sets at 6:16 p.m., PDT, 15 minutes later, and is unobservable. In a few months Mars will appear in the morning sky. The disk of Mars will remain small until a few months before January, 2025, the time of the planet\u2019s next opposition.<\/p>\n

Jupiter<\/strong> is in Aries the Ram. On the 1st<\/sup>, Jupiter rises due east at 8:16 p.m., PDT, and is 48 arcseconds wide. On the 31st<\/sup>, Jupiter rises at 6:08 p.m., PDT, and the planet is 49 arcseconds wide. A magnification of 50x will show the Red Spot, and the four bright Galilean moons may be seen moving back and forth, roughly in a line centered on Jupiter.<\/p>\n

Saturn<\/strong> is in Aquarius the Water Bearer. On the 1st<\/sup>, the planet rises in the east-southeast at 5:00 p.m., PDT, and is 19 arcseconds wide. On the 31st<\/sup>, Saturn rises at 2:59 p.m., PDT. A magnification of 50x is needed to see the rings and Saturn\u2019s largest moon Titan.<\/p>\n

Uranus<\/strong> is in Aries the Ram. On the 1st<\/sup>, Uranus rises in the east-northeast at 8:38 p.m., PDT, and at 6:37 p.m., PDT, on the 31st<\/sup>.\u00a0 On the 15th<\/sup>, Uranus is at Right Ascension 3h<\/sup> 19m<\/sup> 35s<\/sup> and declination +18\u00b0 0\u02b9 47\u02ba. A magnification of 200x is needed to see its 3.8-arcsecond-wide disk.<\/p>\n

Neptune<\/strong> is in Pisces the Fishes. On the 1st<\/sup>, the planet rises in the east at 6:03 p.m., PDT. On the 31st<\/sup>, Neptune rises at 4:04 p.m., PDT. On the 15th<\/sup>, Neptune is at Right Ascension 23h<\/sup> 44m<\/sup> 51s<\/sup> and declination -2\u00b0 55\u02b9 16\u02ba.\u00a0 A magnification of 200x is needed to see its 2.4-arcsecond-wide disk.<\/p>\n

Last quarter occurs on the 6th<\/sup>, new moon on the 14th<\/sup>, first quarter on the 21st<\/sup>, and full moon on the 28th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

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

An annular solar eclipse<\/strong> will occur over southern Oregon, northeastern Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and western Texas on Saturday, October 14. The annular phase will last over five minutes at the greatest eclipse point, located in Central America. The eclipse is partial as viewed from Los Angeles, with approximately 70-percent of the sun\u2019s disk covered by the moon.\u00a0 The moon makes contact with the disk of the sun at 8:08 a.m., PDT. Mid eclipse happens at 9:24 a.m., PDT.\u00a0 The moon leaves the sun\u2019s disk at 10:50 a.m., PDT.\u00a0 NEVER look at the sun without proper solar filters at any time.<\/strong> Griffith Observatory eclipse glasses and Solaramas for viewing the sun are on sale at Griffith Observatory\u2019s Stellar Emporium and Bookstore.\u00a0 Griffith Observatory will open early and host a viewing session as well as a web broadcast.\u00a0 Please see the Observatory\u2019s website for more details.<\/p>\n

The Orionid meteor shower<\/strong> is active from September 26th<\/sup> to November 22nd<\/sup>. The Orionids are a medium strength shower that produces 10 to 20 shower members at maximum. The radiant is in the constellation of Orion the Hunter. The parent object is the famous comet 1P\/Halley. The peak is on the night of October 20 to 21. The moon will set that night at 10:43 p.m., PDT.<\/p>\n

Follow All Space Considered and Griffith Observatory on Facebook<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, and Twitter<\/a> 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\/2023\/10\/OCT_2023_Sky_Report.mp3 This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between October 1 and October 31, 2023. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California. Mercury rises at 5:41 a.m., … 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-2999","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\/2999","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=2999"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3007,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2999\/revisions\/3007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}