October Dark Sky Challenge

October 10 brings us a new moon, one of the darkest evenings of the month. In central Yavapai County sunset will be around 6pm. Get outside shortly afterward, turn off the porch lights and give your eyes time to adjust. Over the next few hours more and more of the night sky will reveal itself.

A comfortable chair will make the evening more enjoyable, and a pair of binoculars or a small telescope will open up even more to see. A good free sky app like SkySafari can make finding some of these objects much easier.

The Summer Triangle

As twilight fades, look overhead for three bright stars forming a huge triangle: Vega, Deneb and Altair. That’s the Summer Triangle. Despite its name it remains easy to spot in October, making a great first landmark.

The Great Square

Look to the east for four bright stars forming a large square. The Great Square of Pegasus is another easy pattern to recognize once the sky gets dark. Learn these big, simple shapes and the night sky starts to feel a lot less intimidating.

The Teapot

Now look toward the southwest for the Teapot of Sagittarius. It really does look like one, with a handle on one side and a spout on the other.

The Teapot, Summer Triangle, and Great Square are asterisms, recognizable patterns of stars that aren’t official constellations by themselves. Asterisms are useful landmarks in the sky. Once you learn a few, you can use them to find other objects with your eyes, binoculars or telescope.

The Milky Way

Look toward the Teapot’s spout and you'll find the Milky Way stretching across the sky. That hazy band isn’t a cloud. You’re looking through the disk of our own galaxy, seeing the combined light of countless stars. The Teapot points toward the crowded center of the Milky Way, which is why this part of the sky can be so spectacular under a dark sky. Follow that river of starlight and you’ll eventually encounter another familiar pattern.

Andromeda

Now that it’s getting a little darker, go back to the Great Square. Find the star at its northeastern corner, then follow the line of stars extending northeast from that. These lead you into Andromeda. Under a dark sky, look just beyond them for a faint, elongated smudge of light.

That's the Andromeda galaxy, our nearest large galactic neighbor, about 2.5 million light-years away. If you can see it with your naked eyes, you're looking at an entire galaxy without a telescope.

Saturn

Now look toward the southeast for Saturn. It will be one of the brightest objects in the sky tonight. Saturn is in opposition this month, as Earth passes between it and the Sun, making Saturn especially bright and well placed for observing. With binoculars or a small telescope, you can clearly see Saturn's rings.

Titan

Have a four-inch or larger telescope? Take the challenge a step further and see whether you can spot Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Look for a tiny point of light near Saturn and its rings. Titan is constantly moving around Saturn, so its position will change as it orbits the planet.

Neptune

Did you find Titan? Are you up for an even fainter object? Let's see if you can spot Neptune!

Neptune is much fainter than Saturn, but on this night it will be only about ten degrees away (about the width of your closed fist at arm’s length), making Saturn a useful starting point for finding it. Through a telescope Neptune appears as a tiny blue-green disk. The color is subtle, but if you can make it out, you've found a world nearly 2.7 billion miles from Earth.

The Pleiades

By around 10pm, turn your attention to the east and look for the Pleiades. To the naked eye this young star cluster looks like a tiny handful of stars. Through binoculars, the view changes completely, revealing many more stars packed together.

How many did you find?

You don't need an expensive telescope or an astronomy degree to explore the night sky. Start with patterns you can recognize, use them as landmarks, and let your eyes do the rest.

Clear skies and happy viewing!

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