Here's the latest Night Sky column by the Argus' astronomy correspondent Jon Powell:

A STRANGE but ultimately explainable sight was witnessed across Wales during late September, taking the form of what appeared to be a ‘triangle of light’ in the night sky.

A colleague of mine in North Wales, Gareth Mon Jones, managed to capture the object when it appeared over Anglesey.

The object’s mystery was quickly solved with the oddity explained as the de-orbit burn of an Atlas V rocket, which had been sent up by NASA to deliver a satellite into space named Landsat 9, designed to monitor changes to the Earth’s surface over the coming years.

The de-orbit burn involves the firing of the rocket’s engines some three hours after launch to steer the rocket back into the Earth’s atmosphere for a destructive re-entry over the Pacific Ocean.

A new site has been proposed for the Planetarium Wales project.

After the town of Maerdy was turned down as a possible home for a national planetarium, the focus has shifted to the former Tower Colliery site in Hirwaun as a potential host.

While plans are still in the development stage, Planetarium Wales are looking to secure the £40 million of funding required to realize the dream of having a national attraction dedicated to astronomy, education, and tourism. To find out more about this exciting project, visit Planetarium Wales’ website: planetarium.wales/.

Hunter’s moon

Following on from the September appearance of the Harvest Moon, October sees a Hunter’s Moon adorn our skies, which will be full on Wednesday, October 20.

Believed to be associated with the time of year to engage in hunting game in preparation for the winter ahead, there are also a number of alternative names for October’s full moon, such as Falling Leaves Moon. Another name is Migrating Moon, as the birds begin their journey south for the winter.

Planets

Mercury has switched from being an evening object to appearing in the sky before sunrise.

During the last few weeks of October, look east-southeast in the morning sky with Mercury easy to spot about an hour or so before being lost in the early morning sunlight.

Venus is still on view in the evening sky over in the south-west after sunset.

If you have a small telescope, you can actually see the shape of Venus’ disc slowly change over successive nights, just like the phases of our own moon.

By Thursday, October 28, Venus appears half-lit.

On the evening of Saturday, October 9, look for a thin crescent moon near to Venus. If you can spot a reddish star also in the vicinity, this will be Antares in the constellation of Scorpius. While looking like a small point of light in our skies, Antares is in fact 700 times larger than our own sun.

Both Jupiter and Saturn remain on view for much of the night during October, both easily spotted in the south after dark.

Jupiter appearing as the brighter of the two objects, with Saturn positioned to Jupiter’s right.

On Wednesday, October 13, both planets can be seen to the left of the Moon.

On Thursday ,October 14, the moon will be positioned below and between Jupiter to the left and Saturn to the right. Friday, October 15 sees Jupiter looking magnificent as it appears particularly close to the moon.

Meteors

October sees two meteor showers, the reliable Orionids shower, and the rather erratic Draconids shower.

Reliable showers like the Orionids and Perseids tend to generate the same number of meteors each year as the Earth passes through a well-established field of debris to generate the ‘shooting stars.’

Less reliable showers as generally due to the Earth passing through debris which is inconsistent in nature.

However, occasionally, the Earth will pass through a denser clump of rubble in the stream and as a result, we see an outburst of meteors. This has been the case with the Draconids, which has a fairly low expected number of meteors per hour, but in recent times, has outdone itself with a number of bountiful outbursts.

How to watch:

Both showers can be seen with the naked eye so there is no need for a telescope or binoculars.

The main shower, the Orionids, is associated with Orion The Hunter, from which the meteors appear to radiate from. The shower peaks in the small hours of Thursday, October 21, but is worth a watch either side of that date.

After midnight, looking in a south-easterly direction, we could see up to 20 meteors per hour as the Earth passes through debris left in the orbital wake of Halley’s Comet. However, some of fainter meteors may well be blotted out by moonlight.

Therefore, given the interference from moonlight during the Orionids, the Draconids may well take your fancy as a better chance of seeing a high number of meteors.

Associated with the constellation from which the meteors appear to radiate from, Draco the Dragon, look high in the northern sky on the evening of Friday, October 8, and whereas the rate expectancy is normally five meteors per hour, there was an outburst in 2018 that saw 150 meteors over a four-hour period.

Like the Orionids and a majority of meteor showers, the Draconids is also linked with cometary debris, in this case, that of comet 21P Giacobini-Zinner.

Out and about

International Observe the Moon night takes place on Saturday, October 16. For more information visit: moon.nasa.gov/observe-the-moon-night/

There are several events being held during October by Dark Sky Training Wales. Further information can be found at: darkskywalestrainingservices.co.uk/events/cambrian-mountains-stargazing-weekend-4/

Please send your astronomy photographs to: TheNightSky@themoon.co.uk

Moon phases

  • First quarter: October 13;
  • Full Moon: October 20;
  • Third quarter: October 28.

Sunrise/sunset times

  • Start of October: Sun rises at 7.12am. Sets at 6.49pm.
  • End of October: Sun rises at 7.04am. Sets at 4.46pm. (End of BST accounted for).
  • Jonathan Powell is a contributor to the BBC Sky at Night magazine. He has written three books on astronomy, Cosmic Debris; Rare Astronomical Sights and Sounds (which was selected by ‘Choice’ magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2019); and From Cave Art to Hubble, all of which are available from Amazon. Jonathan worked at BBC Radio Wales as their astronomy correspondent and is currently a columnist at the South Wales Argus, and presenter on Astro Radio UK. He has also written a book on castles, ‘Fortress Wales’, and was part of the writing team for the BBC Television show, ‘The Fast Show’, which won a BAFTA.