In the Sky This Month

The waning gibbous Moon climbs into good view by about 8 o’clock tonight. Elnath, the second-brightest star of Taurus, is quite close to the Moon’s left or upper left. The star represents the tip of one of the bull’s horns.

The Moon is just past full tonight, so it’s a big spotlight that is in the sky almost all night. Even from locations far from city lights, the brilliant Moon can overpower much of the view of the Milky Way, meteors, and other subtle lights.

Perseus, the hero, is low in the northeast at nightfall and stands directly overhead around midnight. To see it, first find nearby Cassiopeia, which looks like a letter M or W. Cassiopeia is high in the north in mid-evening, with Perseus below it.

The Hunter’s Moon shines brightly tonight. It is the first full Moon after the Harvest Moon, which this year came in October. In bygone centuries, the extra moonlight made it easier for hunters to track animals through the empty fields and beyond.

Spica, the brightest star of the constellation Virgo, is close to the right of Venus, the Morning Star, quite low in the dawn twilight. Venus will disappear from view soon, while Spica will climb a bit higher into the sky day by day.

The Taurid meteor shower is split into two streams, which peak a few nights apart in early November. Neither stream is particularly impressive, but things pick up when they overlap, as they are doing now. The Moon will overpower most of the meteors, however.

The planet Saturn is close to the lower left of the Moon at nightfall. It looks like a bright golden star. The Moon will move toward the planet during the night, and they will be quite close as they set in the wee hours of the morning.

Halloween is a modern commemoration of a cross-quarter day, which falls roughly half way between a solstice and an equinox. In many earlier cultures, these dates represented the start of a new season, not its mid-point.

The night sky is filled with monsters. None are more fearsome than the Gorgons-three sisters who were so hideous that a single glance at them turned the observer to stone. Several of them are represented in the stars of Perseus the hero.

If you’re south of about Dallas, look low in the southwest in the early evening twilight for Mercury. The little planet looks like a bright star, but you need a clear horizon to spot it.