Merkur can be found in the morning sky in October - in the second week of the month there is even the best morning visibility of the year. The steep ecliptic and Mercury help slightly northern ecliptical width. His angle distance to the sun is less cooperative, which reaches a very small maximum value at 18 degrees on October 8, the day of its greatest western elongation - the strong eccentricity of the Mercury railway has an effect here. All in all, this morning visibility is rather average: in the days after the greatest elongation, between October 8 and 15, we find the nimble planet at the start of visible twilight (sunny position -6 degrees at around 07:00 a.m. CEST) 10 degrees above the eastern horizon. Using aids are missing; Venus is already too close to the sun.
Venus finally disappears from the glare of the Sun at the beginning of October. On October 23, it reaches the upper conjunction at midnight. After that, it will not be visible again in the evening sky until December.
Mars continues through the Stier constellation. There, between the "horns" of the stars Beta and Zeta Tauri, he turns on October 30th and begins his opposition loop: for the next few months he will seem wrong, that is, to move west relative to the stars. The reason for this is that the earth passes between the sun and Mars on the inner track. The fact that Mars approaches the opposition can also be seen with the naked eye on its brightness, which rises to -1.2 in the monthly run from -0.6. Its red color is now unmistakable. In the telescope, the Mars slab grows from almost 12 to 15 arc seconds in the same period, the degree of lighting increases to more than 93 percent. The opening times of the planet are out of place from 9:58 p.m. CEST on October 1 to 7:13 p.m. CET (8:09 p.m. CEST) on the month's last. At the end of the month, Mars reached his highest point at almost 64 degrees around 4:20 a.m. CET. On the morning of October 15, the waning moon passes Mars north.
After its opposition in the previous month, Jupiter retrograde wanders through the constellation Pisces. It can be seen at -2.9 mag already at dusk in the east. On the first of the month, it culminates at 00:51 CEST, on October 31 at 21:41 CET. Telescope observers will get their money's worth on its 49 arc-second disc: cloud bands, spots and, of course, numerous phenomena of its large moons can be tracked. Two events should be remembered: on the evening of the 19th. between 18:12 and 18:42 CEST Ganymede, its shadow and the moon Europa are standing together in front of the Jupiter disk; from 19:18 CEST onwards Europa, its shadow and the shadow of Ganymede. Also on October 26th there will be a multiple event worth seeing: from 21:54 to 22:05 CEST Ganymede and Europa and Europa's shadow will be in front of Jupiter again, between 22:15 and 22:56 Europa, its shadow and that of Ganymede. After Europa has passed the Jupiter disk, the two shadows can still be seen together until 00:22 on October 27. The almost full moon passes Jupiter on the evening of October 8; it stands about 2.7 degrees south of the planet after its rising.
On October 23, Saturn will take a degree northeast of the 4.3 Mag Hellen Star Iota Capricorni in the constellation Capricorn and ends his opposition loop. We find him in the evening sky; At the end of the dawn, 0.7 Mag Hell, is around 20 degrees above the south -south horizon. Its culmination periods from October 1st to 31st from 10:05 p.m. to 6:06 p.m., its undergails according to 02:50 a.m. to 00:49. It reaches a maximum of 23 degrees. It can be easily observed before midnight. In the telescope, the Saturn pane appears almost 18 arc seconds, and its rings extend over 40 arc seconds. The increasing moon passed Saturn on the evening of October 5, 4.5 degrees south.
Uranus approaches its opposition on November 9. On 1 October, it rises at 20:13 CEST and culminates at an altitude of 57 degrees at around 03:40. Until the last day of the month, these times will be reduced to 17:13 CET (18:13 CEST) and 00:42 CET. In the constellation Aries, which is not exactly blessed with bright stars, it is not easy to find. You can proceed like this: First, you think of a line from the bright star Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri) in Taurus to Hamal (Alpha Arietis) in Aries. Approximately near the middle of this line, a little closer to Hamal, is the star Delta Arietis, which is still clearly visible to the naked eye – it is the brightest in this region. Uranus is located 3.5 degrees southwest of Delta Arietis. It can be seen with 5.7 mag under dark skies with the naked eye, better still in binoculars. In the telescope, the planet appears at high magnification as a pale green disk measuring 3.7 arc seconds.
Neptune was in opposition in mid -September and can still be observed almost all night in October. In the eastern Aquarius, 5.5 degrees northeast of the star Phi Aquarii (4.2 Mag), he culminates on October 31 on October 31st. It reaches a height of 36 degrees. With 7.7 MAG apparent brightness, the outermost planet of the solar system can only be seen with optical help. A telescope shows it with high enlargement and calm air than 2.3 arc second large, pale blue disc. From about 200 millimeters of telescopic opening, the 13.5 MAG Helle Neptunmond Triton can also be seen. He always stands between around 8 and 17 sheet seconds next to his planet.
