The below notes outline predictable astronomical events visible from Canberra, Australia during the period 27 October – 2 November 2019. In most cases, the events will be visible to the unaided eye.
Finder charts for a selected range of events can be found elsewhere on this website.
Monday 28 October 2019
New Moon.
All night. Uranus at opposition. A telescope will be required to show the planets tiny disc. A telescope finder chart can be found here: https://s22380.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/WEB_UrNep_2019-2020_updated.pdf
Tuesday 29 October 2019
Evening twilight pass by International Space Station. More information and finder chart here: https://www.heavens-above.com/PassSummary.aspx?satid=25544&lat=-35.41187&lng=149.10904&loc=Gowrie&alt=0&tz=AEST Note that the best passes don’t occur until 3 November and 5 November 2019 respectively.
Wednesday 30 October 2019
Evening twilight. A very slim crescent Moon will be located above and to the right of Mercury and Venus. Look low on the Western horizon. The brightest ‘star’ is really the planet Venus.
Evening twilight pass by International Space Station. More information and finder chart here: https://www.heavens-above.com/PassSummary.aspx?satid=25544&lat=-35.41187&lng=149.10904&loc=Gowrie&alt=0&tz=AEST Note that the best passes don’t occur until 3 November and 5 November 2019 respectively.
Thursday 31 October 2019
Early evening sky. The crescent Moon will be located below Jupiter.
Evening twilight pass by International Space Station. More information and finder chart here: https://www.heavens-above.com/PassSummary.aspx?satid=25544&lat=-35.41187&lng=149.10904&loc=Gowrie&alt=0&tz=AEST Note that the best passes don’t occur until 3 November and 5 November 2019 respectively.
Saturday 2 November 2019
Evening sky. The Moon will be located immediately above the planet Saturn.
NASA TV (https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/#public) will webcast the launch of the Cygnus Cargo robotic spacecraft to the International Space Station. The webcast will start late Saturday night. The actual launch is scheduled to occur at 12.30 am Sunday 3 November 2019.
Evening twilight pass by International Space Station. More information and finder chart here: https://www.heavens-above.com/PassSummary.aspx?satid=25544&lat=-35.41187&lng=149.10904&loc=Gowrie&alt=0&tz=AEST Note that the best passes don’t occur until 3 November and 5 November 2019 respectively.
Further information about astronomy and space events can be found on this website. Alternative excellent sources of information are the annual astronomy yearbook published by Quasar Publishing (http://www.quasarastronomy.com.au/) or the fantastic astronomy apps in the Sky Safari family (go to the app store on your phone or tablet). A fantastic free astronomy computer program is Stellarium (https://stellarium.org/).
