Saturn Reaches Opposition

On October 4, Saturn reaches opposition, offering one of the best viewing opportunities of the year for the ringed planet. This occurs when Earth moves between the Sun and Saturn, making Saturn appear on the opposite side of the sky from the Sun.

As a result, Saturn rises around sunset and remains visible for much of the night. Astronomers are also studying unusual activity in Saturn's atmosphere, including a hexagon-shaped jet stream and a ten-sided atmospheric wave surrounding the planet's south pole.

The Orionid meteor shower peaks on the night of October 21 into the morning of October 22. These meteors come from small pieces of material left behind by Halley's Comet and can streak across any part of the sky.

However, a bright waxing gibbous Moon will overpower some of the fainter meteors. The best opportunity to see the shower may arrive during the few hours before dawn, after the Moon has set.

Another striking sight arrives on the night of October 27 into the 28th, when the Moon passes close to the Pleiades star cluster. The Pleiades can be seen from nearly every part of the world and have inspired stories in many ancient cultures.

To find the pairing, look toward the east during the evening as the Moon and the Pleiades rise higher in the sky. The Pleiades appear as a slightly fuzzy grouping of 6 to 7 stars and are visible to the unaided eye.

Raquel Villanueva from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says skywatchers can stay up to date on all of NASA's missions exploring the solar system and beyond at NASA Science.