The month of fall October declares itself to be astronomically interesting, tweets the weather by Frank Debusser. Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and, as snow on the cake, a partial solar eclipse on Tuesday, October 25. Explanation word.
The highlight of this month is the partial solar eclipse on Tuesday, October 25. At about 11:09 a.m., there is already a curvature at the edge of the solar disk, because the moon then begins to slowly slide in front of the sun. Less than an hour later, around 12.04 pm, a partial solar eclipse can be best observed in Flanders. Then about a third of the diameter of the sun “disappeared,” Debusser wrote on his website. “In other words, during the peak period, between 17 and 20 percent of the Sun’s surface disappeared.”
The partial eclipse will end at about 1 p.m. Keep in mind the “approximate times”: there is a difference of a few minutes between the northwest and southeast.
The eclipse can be seen across almost all of Europe and in northeastern Africa and western Asia, but it will not be complete anywhere. This means that it will never get completely dark anywhere, like a total solar eclipse. Deboosere warns once again that we should not look at the sun unprotected and that we should use eclipse glasses.
Another fact: Venus is not visible this month because it is on the opposite side of the Sun when seen from Earth. Mercury, that other planet that lies between the Earth and the sun, can be seen from our country in the first half of October in the morning and even the best of the whole year. You have to look east during the morning twilight, low above the horizon.
In October, you can also see the orange color of Mars during most of the night in the constellation Taurus. Mars shines brighter than most stars, but not Jupiter. On the night of October 14-15, you can see Mars more easily because the planet is located close to the moon.
On October 8, the moon will be near Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, which will be visible all night long this month. You can even see the four large moons orbiting Jupiter, but you’ll need binoculars.
Saturn’s rings can be seen with a telescope. The planet itself is visible in the evening to the south, and then to the southwest. To reduce the chance of an error occurring, the moon will now be close to Saturn on Wednesday evening.
Until Thursday, October 6, you can clearly see the International Space Station in the evening sky. It is also possible from October 21, but in the morning.
Those who are most interested in shooting stars will have the most fun this month between October 16-26. The meteor shower peaks around October 21, at a rate of 10 to 20 stars per hour. Find a dark spot, look east in the wee hours, and keep your fingers crossed so the weather doesn’t turn into a problem.
Finally, do not forget that we switch to winter time on the last weekend of this month: on the morning of Sunday, October 30, the clocks at three in the morning will be rolled back to two.
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