With October simply beginning, NASA has served up its month-to-month record of recommendations on what to look out for within the sky over the approaching weeks.

First up is “evenings with giants,” that includes none aside from Jupiter and Saturn. The two huge planets will probably be seen to the bare eye all through October. In truth, you will have already seen them.

NASA notes you could spot Jupiter — the brighter of the 2 planets — to the southeast, shifting slowly westward with the celebrities because the evening goes on.

“They form a triangle with bright star Fomalhaut,” the area company explains on its web site. “When observing this trio, note how the planets shine with a steady light, while the star twinkles. This can be an easy way to know if what you’re looking at is a planet or a star.”

Next up, Mars. The crimson planet has been showing to go in an easterly route all yr — relative to the background stars — however on the finish of this month, it would hit reverse gear and seem to start heading in the other way. Track it till late January and as soon as once more, it would appear to modify route, heading east once more.

In NASA’s video (high), you possibly can be taught extra about this so-called “retrograde motion” of Mars, which happens about as soon as each couple of years. It’s really one thing of an phantasm that NASA says was as soon as a supply of intense curiosity for astronomers at a time when its motion wasn’t absolutely understood.

Finally, October (and November) is a good alternative to view the Orionid meteor bathe, which peaks on the evening of October 20.

NASA describes it as “a moderate shower, usually producing 10-20 meteors per hour at its peak, under clear, dark skies.”

“The shower’s name comes from the fact that you can trace the paths of its meteors back to an area on the sky near Orion,” the area company explains, including that the meteors on this specific bathe are fragments of mud left over from Comet Halley, which was final seen in Earth’s skies in 1986.

According to NASA, Orionid meteors are sometimes vibrant and fast-paced, and might go away lengthy trails that glow for a number of seconds as they streak by the sky.

No particular gear is required to look at meteor showers. For a full information on the way to observe the Orionids, Digital Trends has you lined.

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