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The Sky over Berlin

October 2010

Diese Seite in deutsch *

Index: Links to Astronomy... *
* Overview * Events
  * The Starry Sky in October
* Sunrise and Sunset
* The Phases of the Moon
* The Planets
  * Giacobinids and Orionids
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Overview

The Starry Sky in October

The Starry Sky in StarryNight

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Sunrise and Sunset

...with astronomical dusk/dawn for 52°31'30" north and 13°18'45" east at 3m above sealevel, 10°C and 1000mB (StarryNight 2.0)

  Dawn 1.: 04:13     11.: 04:31     21.: 04:49     31.: 05:05 (MET)
  Rise 1.: 06:09     11.: 06:27     21.: 06:44     31.: 07:03 (MET)
  Set 1.: 17:43     11.: 17:20     21.: 16:58     31.: 16:37 (MET)
  Night 1.: 19:38     11.: 19:14     21.: 18:52     31.: 18:34 (MET)

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The Phases of the Moon

  3rd Qrtr.: 1.: 4:52   New Moon: 7.: 19:44   1st Qrtr.: 14.: 22:27   Full Moon: 23.: 2:37   3rd Qrtr.: 30.: 13:46 (MET)

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The Planets

  Mercury: at the first days still visible at the morning sky in Virgo/Libra
  Venus: invisible at daylight sky in Libra/Virgo
  Mars: invisible at the evening sky in Libra/Scorpius
  Jupiter: visible at the nightly sky in Pisces/Aquarius
  Saturn: in the second half of the month visible at the morning sky in Virgo
  Uranus: visible at the nightly sky in Pisces
  Neptune: visible at the nightly sky in Capricornus
  Pluto: visible at the evening sky in Sagittarius

Illustrations: StarryNight 2.0 & -- jd --

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Events

1.10.2010 2h MET
Saturn at conjunction with the Sun
7.10.2010 20h MET
Venus standing still, followed by retrograde motion
7.-11.10.2010
Giacobinids visible (variable strength, slow, see below)
17.10.2010 2h MET
Mercury at superior conjunction with the Sun
20.10.2010 3h MET
Moon 6.5 degrees north of Jupiter
21.10.2010
Orionids maximum (visible Oct. 2 - Nov. 7 with 20<ZHR<30 (medium) and V=65km/s (fast), see below)
29.10.2010 2h MET
Venus at inferior conjunction with the Sun
31.10.2010 3h MEST = 2h MET
End of Daylight Savings Time, return to Middle Euroean Time
 
1.10.2010
15th anniversary of the first south pole of the Sun flyby of Ulysses (NASA)
3.10.2010
25th anniversary of the maiden flight of STS-51-J Atlantis, 2nd DoD mission (NASA)
4.10.2010
50th anniversary of the launch of Courier 1B, 1st activ repeater satellite in space (NASA)
5.10.2010
130th day of death of William Lassell
6.10.2010
20th anniversary of the launch of Ulysses with STS-41 Discovery (NASA)
11.10.2010
10th anniversary of the start of STS-92 Discovery, 100th shuttle start (NASA)
12.10.2010
5th anniversary of the start of Shenzhou IV with Fei Junlong & Nie Haisheng (China)
20.10.2010
40th anniversary of the start of Sond 8 as the last Lunar mission of the USSR
22.10.2010
35th anniversary of the first photo from the Venusian surface by Venera 9 (USSR)
24.10.2010
10th anniversary of the return of STS-92 Discovery from the ISS (NASA)
25.10.2010
35th anniversary of the soft landing of Venera 10 on Venus (USSR)
28.10.2010
40th anniversary of the first agreement for cooperation in space between USA and USSR
30.10.2010
25th anniversary of the start of the D1 mission with Messerschmid/Furrer in STS-61A Challenger (NASA)
31.10.2010
10th anniversary of the start of Soyus TM-31 with the expedition 1 crew to ISS (Russia)
Source of the Celestial Events:
H.-U. Keller (ed.), "Kosmos Himmelsjahr 2010", Franckh-Kosmos 2009

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Giacobinids and Orionids

In StarryNight:

Giacobinids and Orionids at the Berlin night sky

This month there is nearly nothing special to see at the nightly sky. Except Jupiter all the classical planets are next to the Sun, but at least there might be some falling stars visible.

The Giacobinids are the only stream of falling stars which are named after their originating comet. That is comet 21P Giacobini-Zinner, which was discovered in the year 1900 by Michel Giacobini. Other names for these falling stars are Delta-Draconids or October-Draconids. They appear in the first half of October between the 7th and 11th and their maximum is expected within the night from October 9 to 10. Even at that maximum only one to two meteors per hour are expected in the normal case. But in the 20th century there were some nights in which more than a hundred meteors were observed. This years Giacobinids will occur next to the New Moon, so that no moonlight will disturb the more or less weak meteors.

The Orionids are somewhat widely spread, they are predicted from start of October until the start of November (according to the Meteor Shower Calendar by Gary Kronk mid of October until the end of October). The Halley comet is noted to be the originating comet of the Orionids. They have their maximum at October 21 this year, which is nearly next to the Full Moon. Under best circumstances there might be 20 to 30 meteors per hour visible, which are somewhat fast with a speed of 65km/s.

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created: 2010-03-13 from German version
modified: 2010-03-13 translated

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