A huge gaseous nebula looms along the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, in the Orion spiral arm of our galaxy and towards the constellation Cygnus – the celestial swan. This glowing cloud of interstellar gas and dust is known as the Tulip nebula. It is around 8,000 light years away from us, meaning light takes that long to reach Earth (ironically, only to be drowned out by light pollution in most of Malta). Cygnus is easy to identify, overhead after sunset throughout October. The Tulip nebula is close to Cygnus X-1, a star system that is home to one of the first suspected black holes.

Lower in the sky we find Saturn, very low in the west-southwest sky after sunset, closing in behind the sun and overtaking Mars, which will remain nearly in the same place all month in the west-southwest, setting around three hours after sunset. Uranus is fainter but reaches opposition on Tuesday.

Early risers will start being treated to better views of Jupiter – by morning twilight, it will be high in the southeast sky. Mercury also makes an early morning appearance at the end of the month; look for it on the southeast horizon before sunrise. Venus will not be visible as it swings back behind the sun this month.

This month in the early morning you may be able to spot a few meteors zipping through the sky – these are meteors associated with the Orionid meteor shower, which reaches its peak on October 22. The meteors are remnants of Halley’s comet that burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere as our planet intersects this famous comet’s path. No special equipment is requir­ed to view meteors – just a place where the stars shine bright!

Course in astronomy

A basic course about space and astronomy will be held from mid-October to mid-November. Those interested to attend may send an e-mail to info@maltastro.org.

Events this month

Date Event
Wed. Full moon at 12.51pm
Oct 15 Last quarter moon at 12pm
Oct 16 Basic course session – History of astronomy
Oct 18 The moon close to Jupiter (morning sky)
Oct 23 Orionids maximum, observe before dawn
Oct 23 New moon at 11.57pm
  Basic course session – The Sun and our planetary system
Oct 28 The moon close to Mars (evening sky)
Oct 29 Basic course session – The Stars – constellations to black holes
Oct 31 First quarter moon at 3.48am

Alexei Pace is president of the Astronomical Society of Malta.

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