This month is a stargazer's dream

 Associated Press
The night sky

First of all, this coming Monday night/Tuesday morning, the waning gibbous moon will be passing in front of, or blocking the view of, or as the brainiacs say it, occulting, the famous Pleiades star cluster. Because of the relative brightness of the Moon at this time, the view will be best using a telescope, but still worthwhile with binoculars as well. To find this wondrous astronomical happening, gaze roughly due east after 1 a.m. and look around one half of the way up the sky . . . or find the Moon, whichever is easiest heh!heh! Enjoy the view!

The most recognizable constellation of the winter sky, mighty Orion the Hunter, will have risen in the east by this time. I bring this to your attention because Orion is the location of a halfway decent meteor shower later this month. Overnight Oct, 20-21, check out Orion as he rises from the depths of his slumber. You should be able to observe a couple of dozen bright meteors per hour, and particularly so this year as the moon's bright light will not be interfering with the view. The radiant, or point in the sky where the meteors will seem to "shoot out from" is just off Orion's left shoulder. The meteors are dust particles left in the wake of thousands of years' passage of the famous Halley's Comet. The ancient Chinese were the first to take note of this meteor shower way back in AD 288, when "stars fell like rain". Halley's most recent passage through our solar system was back in 1986, and looking for it with binoculars was one of the highlights of my youthful astronomy career, and went a long way to fueling the interest (no, let's call a spade a spade . . . obsession) in astronomy that I now have.

In Greek mythology, Orion was the son of Neptune (the god of the sea) and he was the beloved of Artemis, the goddess of the Moon and the hunt. So smitten with Orion was she that she neglected her task of lighting the night sky.

One day, while Orion was out swimming, Artemis' jealous twin brother Apollo challenged his sister to hit a speck far out in the ocean with her bow and arrows. Artemis obliged, being ever proud of her archery skills. Later, the waves gently rolled Orion's body on shore. She beheld what she'd done and in her inconsolable grief, she placed Orion and his hunting dog Sirius in the night sky. This tragedy explains why the Moon seems so sad and cold.

The full moon that occurred Oct. 6th, was the official Harvest Moon. It receives this designation because it is the nearest full moon to the fall equinox. Zodiacal light continues to shine in the early morning hours just before dawn (see last month's article for more details), particularly after Oct. 20. Both Mars and Venus will be passing behind the sun this month, and won't be visible during that time. Once they reappear from their hiding places, Mars will show up in the morning and Venus becomes the 'evening star' once again. Saturn makes its return to the morning skies, while Jupiter remains (just barely) visible in the west just before sunset. Mercury is best seen early in the morning just before dawn on Oct. 17, and both Uranus and Neptune are at their best this month located in the constellations of Aquarius and Capricorn respectively. Phew! Believe it or not, even Pluto, who was recently demoted, is visible this month in the constellation of Ophiuchus.