Minnesota Starwatch for October 2008
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Starwatch Newsletter

Minnesota Starwatch is a newsletter describing the night sky in the Midwest.

It is updated monthly, and is produced by the
Department of Astronomy, University of Minnesota
116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455

Minnesota Starwatch for October 2008

Minnesota Starwatch for October 2008

This month Venus is the evening star, low in the southwestern sky just after sunset. On October 25th, about 25 minutes after sunset, Venus will be close to the bright red star Antares. Also about an hour after sunset Jupiter can be seen in the southern sky. But Mars will be too low in the southwestern sky after sunset to be seen. Saturn will dominate the sky after midnight, rising about an hour or so before the beginning of dawn.

On Halloween, October 31st, Venus, the crescent Moon and red Antares will form a triangle in the southwestern sky about 45 minutes after sunset.

The Moon will be a waxing crescent on October 1st; it will be in 1st quarter phase on October 6th, full on October 14-15th, 3rd quarter on October 21st, new on October 28th, and a thin crescent again on Halloween.

This month we have some important news for astronomy enthusiasts: Astronomers have been patiently waiting for about three years for the final servicing mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. The launch of the shuttle Atlantis for the mission was scheduled for October 14-15th, but on September 29th there was bad news. The telescope's data transmission system failed. To plan for the repair of this critical component and include its repair in the servicing mission manifest, the launch has been postponed to January-February 2009.

Friday night telescope viewing at the University of Minnesota Astronomy Department begins at 8pm. Please call (612) 626-0034 for more information.

For fun Astronomy Outreach programs check out our Public Outreach link, or if you're interested in how you can help build the new Minnesota Planetarium, please visit www.mplanetarium.org.

The Como Planetarium in St. Paul's Como Park offers limited star shows. For more information, call (651) 293-5398 or check their website at www.planetarium.spps.org.