Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences: "Big Planet" and "Little Meteor" Piled Up in the October Night Sky "Sai Yan Value"

Source: China News Network

Nanjing, October 1 (China News Service) -- According to the News Agency of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Purple Mountain Observatory on October 1, in October at the turn of summer and autumn in the northern hemisphere, fascinating deep-sky objects opened a "viewing window." At the same time, the double star with the moon, the Orion meteor shower, and the mercury west distance will relay the "performance" of Tianyu, and the "big planet" and "small meteor" will open the "face value" competition.

According to astronomers, many famous deep-sky objects will appear in the starry sky in October. Among them, the most well-known is the M31 Andromeda Galaxy, followed by the M33 Windmill Galaxy in the constellation triangular, the planetary nebula NGC 7293 in the constellation Aquarius, the California Nebula in the constellation perseus, etc. It is recommended that you use astronomical telescopes to observe these celestial bodies.

In addition, the "big planets" and "small meteors" that are visible to the naked eye will also bring wonderful "events".

On October 14 and 15, the Moon travels to an "intimate position" with Saturn and Jupiter. At that time, three bright celestial bodies will form a double star in the sky with a lunar planet, which is very easy to identify and watch. At sunset, in addition to the dazzling Venus in the western sky, Jupiter, Saturn and the moon shine in the sky at the same time, like a "starry sky party".

Specifically, saturn appears on October 14 and Jupiter takes over on October 15. However, this time in China, the moon will not be seen moving to the middle of Saturn and Jupiter; in North and South America on the other side of the earth, the "face" of the binary star with the moon will be seen.

After the "superstars" came to an end, the shining "little meteors" appeared colorfully.

Halley's Comet's gift, the Orion meteor shower, will be extremely large on October 21, with an estimated ZHR (maximum zenith flow per hour) of 20. It is a slight pity that this year's Orion meteor shower observation conditions are average, coinciding with the large moon on the sixteenth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar, which will adversely affect the viewing.

However, this year's orion meteor shower has a long active cycle, lasting from October 2 to November 7. During this period, some small flow meteor showers will "come to Earth", such as the Draco meteor shower, the Southern Taurus meteor shower, etc. These small meteor showers add up to improve the visibility of this month's meteor showers.

At the end of the month, a beautiful scene of Mercury's west distance will "perfectly end" for the Celestial Theater.

On October 25, Mercury reached the Western Great Distance, with a brightness of about -0.5 magnitude, very bright. This is the third time this year and the last time to see the "window of opportunity" of the mysterious Mercury in the year.

Astronomical experts remind that the viewing of Mercury's western distance needs to be planned in advance: first of all, it is necessary to find an observation site with no obstruction in the east and the highest possible altitude; second, to query the altitude information of Mercury and the sun through the ephemeris software; after that, pay close attention to the weather; finally, to strictly control the observation time, it must be stopped immediately before sunrise, otherwise it will cause damage to the eyes. (End)