The October Night Sky.
There are no stand out features this coming month. The barren square of Pegasus dominates the southern sky. Ursa Major, is at its lowest in the North. The ‘W’ of Cassiopeia is almost directly overhead. The summer triangle of Altair, Deneb and Vega remains high up. The bright star Capella in the constellation of Auriga the Charioteer is becoming more noticeable in the east, and It will be overhead as we move into winter. The bight star just above the southern horizon is Fomalhaut , in the constellation of Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fish.
Only Saturn will be just observable in the evening sky this month. Shinning at magnitude +0.7. Look low in the south west after sunset. It will however be difficult to see by the end of the month as it nears the horizon. Around the 8th of October the very bright planets Venus and Jupiter, and the much fainter Mars, will form a large triangle in the sky before the Sun rises, in the eastern sky. Later, on the 26th, Jupiter and Venus will be very close to each other and make a spectacular sight in the sky before the Sun rises. Lower in the east is Mercury, which is making its best morning appearance of the year.
During the night of the 21st – 22nd debris from Halley’s Comet produces the annual Orionid meteor shower. Not as spectacular as other showers, a few meteors might be seen in the early hours of the morning, after the Moon has set.
The phases of the moon this month with Last Quarter on the 4th, New Moon on the 13th, First Quarter on the 20th and a Full Moon 27th