October makes for an excellent month for viewing planets in he night sky.
Venus remains a dominant object in the southeast morning sky for nearly four hours prior to sunrise throughout the month. And during the first week of October, it also joined by Mercury, although only a fraction as bright and much lower to the horizon. It disappears into the sunrise fires thereafter.
In the evening sky, Saturn is visible virtually for the entire night; low in the southeast at dusk, reaching its high point in the south during the middle of night and descending the southwest sky toward dawn. A much brighter Jupiter makes its first appearance low in the eastern sky about 90 minutes after sunset on Oct. 1, and by month's end it is rising around sunset.
The only planet that continues "out of the loop" is Mars, which will remain out of sight, too near the vicinity of the sun to be seen right through the end of the year.
In our schedule, remember that when measuring the angular separation between two celestial objects, your clenched fist held at arm’s length measures roughly 10 degrees. Below, we present a schedule that provides some of the best planet viewing times and also tells you where to look to see them.
Be sure to check out our best telescopes for viewing planets guide and our more general guides for the best binoculars and the best telescopes. If you're interested in taking your own impressive sky watching images, we have recommendations for the best cameras for astrophotography and the best lenses for astrophotography.
I'd like to move to the country side one day and buy a telescope to watch the stars..
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