The Planets

At dusk, Jupiter shines brightly high in the SW sky.
Mars, the Red Planet, rises around midnight this month and is best observed high in the southern sky before dawn.
Venus gleams unmistakably about 30 degrees above the eastern horizon just before sunrise.
Saturn can be found low in the eastern sky at dawn.

The Moon

Last Quarter: October 3
New Moon: October 11
First Quarter: October 19
Full Moon: October 26

Constellation of the Month: Cassiopeia the Queen

Cassiopeia (KAS-ee-oh-PEE-uh) was the queen of Ethiopia. She once boasted that she and her daughter Andromeda (an-DROM-eh-duh) were more beautiful than the Sea-Nymphs.

The Sea-Nymphs were furious and complained to Poseidon, the god of the sea, who sent a sea-monster to devastate Ethiopia. After much destruction, the people of Ethiopia decided to sacrifice Andromeda to the sea-monster in order to make him stop.

Perseus, the hero, flying through the air with his winged sandals, saw Andromeda chained to a rock and the sea-monster about to kill her. Perseus swooped down and killed the sea-monster.

All the characters in the myth are now in the sky, even the monster. Cassiopeia was placed so that half the time she has to hang upside down in the sky, as punishment for her vanity.

How to find Cassiopeia: Look north in the early evening. Locate the North Star. Look to the right and up from the North Star to find a stretched-out W or M on its side. This is Cassiopeia sitting in her chair. She is upside down at this time of the year.

Events

• October 2: At Dawn, Mars is 10 degrees west of the Moon.
• October 6-9: A pretty grouping in the east before dawn; Venus, Saturn and the star Regulus, joined by the moon October 9.
• October 15: Venus and Saturn closely paired in the early morning sky.
• October 27:  P.M. Pleiades upper right of Moon