Astronomy Viewing Tonight

The planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are all visible to the naked eye when they’re in the right position at the right time. Their motion across the sky, as they arc around our sun, can be tracked with a telescope or binoculars. The outer planets, Uranus and Neptune, require a much larger telescope to see.

Venus dominates the pre-dawn sky in October, shining at magnitude 4.7 with an apparent disk diameter of 31.7 arc-seconds. This morning’star’ is slowly filling in its illuminated phase as it swings towards superior conjunction with the sun.

By the end of the month, it will have passed behind the sun and its morning apparition will come to an end. This will not happen again until 2023.

After the sun sets, the star Aldebaran (magnitude 0.56) shines at its highest point in the evening sky, marking the bright orange eye of the bull of Taurus. It’s accompanied by the planet Saturn and the bright orange star Fomalhaut, part of the constellation Auriga the charioteer. To the east of Saturn is the Helix Nebula, a bubble of gas and dust expelled from a dying star, which can be seen with binoculars or small telescopes.

Mars, which had a poor evening apparition earlier in the month, is now back in good shape and can be found low in the western horizon after dark. Its reddish-orange colour will help it stand out against the background stars. The constellation Delphinus is high in the southern sky, with its five 4th magnitude stars. Greek legend tells how the dolphin helped Poseidon in a difficult situation, so it was rewarded with a place of honor in the skies.

Jupiter, the giant planet that has captivated astronomers since antiquity, will be at its best for observers in the northern hemisphere from the start of January to the middle of August. A small telescope can pick out its four Galilean moons – Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto – as pinpricks of light. A larger telescope will show the main bands of the planet’s atmosphere with faint shades of grey.

Saturn is now making its way into the morning sky, rising an hour before sunrise and setting just after sunset. It will be at its brightest on the 8th of August, as it reaches opposition with the Sun, and again on the 31st of December. Even a small scope can display its rings and the famous Great Red Spot, but a larger telescope is needed to fully appreciate this magnificent planet.

Uranus can be glimpsed in the evening through a binocular or small telescope, but its blue colour makes it difficult to spot when there is too much bright moonlight nearby. On nights when the moon is absent, it should be easy to find, shining brightly just below Jupiter in the asterism of the Teapot-shaped constellation Sagittarius. Neptune is another challenging object for the naked eye, but it can be spotted with a telescope on nights when the moon isn’t around.