Supermoon To Delight Skygazers

The night skies of this autumn month will invite sky gazers to delve into the beauty and mysteries of our universe, containing complex and confounding cosmic entities in all their glory. Planet Mercury would be fleeting, along with the ruddy planet Mars, across the constellations Virgo (the Maiden) and Libra (the Scales) during the day. They will not be manifested easily by us. Mercury will reach its greatest eastern elongation from the Sun on 29 October. It would be the best time to cherish Mercury since it will hover highest in the south-western evening sky.

Planet Venus can be perceived briefly in the eastern sky from very late hours till at dawn before sunrise. It would be gliding through courtly constellations, Leo (lion) and Virgo. Planet Jupiter, with its mesmerising moons, can be admired adeptly in the southeastern sky late by midnight. It would soar smoothly and then be evanescent by daybreak. It would be mingling merrily with the stars of the congenial constellation Gemini (twins). 

Stars Castor (Kasturi) and Pollux (Punerbasu) would be gleaming gleefully above Jupiter. The eerie Eskimo nebula is smiling superbly below Jupiter, resembling a person in a parka-hood. It is surprisingly 6500 light-years away. German-British astronomer William Herschel uncloaked it in 1787. Ringed planet Saturn can be savored soothingly in the eastern sky after sunset in the constellation Aquarius (water bearer). It would be aloft in the southern sky by midnight and would then be plunging towards the western horizon by wee hours of the night. Far-flung grayish planet Uranus can be admired in the eastern sky late at night. It would be climbing the southern sky. It would be sinking towards the western horizon by sunup. It would be cavorting comfortably with shiny stars belonging to the constellation Taurus (bull). Amazing star Aldebaran (Rohini) is scintillating below Uranus. 

Distant bluish planet Neptune can be noticed nonchalantly below the captivating circlet asterism connected to the constellation Pisces (fishes) after nightfall in the eastern sky. It will ascend in the southern sky late in the night. It would fade away slowly after midnight. The full moon in Pisces will be on 07 October. It is popularly dubbed the hunters’ moon because at this time of year, the leaves are falling and the game are fat and ready for hunting. This moon is the first of three super-moons for 2025. It will virtually be at the closest venue adjacent to Earth and may look slightly bloated and brighter than usual. The new moon in Virgo would fall on 21 October. Venerated Bijaya Dashami was celebrated cheerfully on 02 October. Bhai Tika and Chhath Parba ceremonies are respectfully revered with joy on 23 and 27 October, respectively. 

The Draconid meteor shower will display a meager 10 meteors per hour during its peak, occurring this year on the night of 07 October. It is produced by dust grains left behind by comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, which was first detected in 1900. Draconids are queerly unusual because they can be relished in the early evening instead of during the morning hours like most other meteor showers. They run generally from 06 to 10 October. Unfortunately, this year the galling glare from the nearly full moon will wash away most of the dimmer meteors. The lambent 17-day-old moon, relaxing in puny constellation Aries (ram), is waning gibbous and 94 percent luminous. Combined with the low hourly rate, the shower would sadly not exhibit good show even to ardent onlookers. 

Chick viewing will be during the evening from dark areas away from city lights. Meteors will emanate from the circumpolar constellation Draco (dragon). French astronomer Michel Giacobini had visually ascertained the comet in December 1900 from Nice Observatory in France. Though this comet required merely 6.6 years for hastening around the Sun, its fans had missed seeing it again during its proclaimed next return. In October 1913, German astronomer Ernst Zinner spotted the comet convincingly. Thus, the comet bears their names. 

The International Comet Explorer satellite flew through this comet’s plasma tail in September 1985. Historically, it became the first comet to be visited by a space probe. The radiant of the Draconids is located near the so-called fierce dragon’s eyes depicted dramatically by the enigmatic and remarkable stars Eltanin and Rastaban in the curiously twisting constellation Draco. The orange giant star Eltanin is simply 148 light-years away. 

The yellow giant star Rastaban is about 362 light-years away from us. During perihelion (nearest to the Sun) of the comet in September 2018, it came closer to Earth than it had in 72 years. Consequently, the Draconids had an outburst in 2018. The last perihelion passage of Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner was in March 2025. Witnessing copious Draconids this year is questionable. However, in 2098, Draconids would probably boast of an awesome 20 thousand meteors per hour.

The Orionids meteor shower would display up to a paltry 20 meteors per hour at its maximum from the night of 21 October to the morning of 22 October. They are created by dusty debris left behind by the iconic comet 1P/Halley, which has been recognised and chased continuously since the ancient era. They are seen annually from 02 October to 07 November. 

This is an excellent year for enjoying Orionids. The waxing dull crescent moon, 30 days old and zero percent lucent, will be absent all night long, leaving tenebrous skies for offering dandy drama of shimmering shooting stars. Watching them from dusky places after midnight would be recommended. 

Mystic meteors will spring out from the charismatic constellation Orion (hunter). The progenitor of Orionids is the classical comet 1P/Halley, which tumbles around the Sun once in almost 76 years. Its observations have been allegedly recorded since 240 BCE. It is tagged not after its identifier but after English astronomer Edmond Halley, who calculated its orbit. 

Presently, it is at its farthest point from the Sun and resting alongside the head of the straggling constellation Hydra (water snake).  Halley’s Comet was last encountered in 1986 and will bustle back boisterously in 2061. Orionids would emanate from the radiant, staying vividly beside the imaginary upraised club of cute constellation Orion (hunter alias Kal Purush), standing impressively upright below the constellation Taurus. The resplendent star twinkling in its vicinity is the baffling behemoth reddish super giant star Betelgeuse (Ardra). It is bizarrely 650 light-years away and bewilderingly 800 times bigger than our Sun. It could explode uniquely in the future as a supernova. If it were planted at the centre of the Solar System, its surface would extend beyond the asteroid belt and would engulf the trajectories of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. 

Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) is approaching us adamantly. It was ferreted out at Mount Lemmon Observatory in Arizona, USA, during January 2025. This greenish, dynamically aged Comet Lemmon whizzes around the Sun every 1396 years. It dropped in our inner regions of the Solar System around the year 629 in the seventh century. Hopefully, it will meet Earth anew in the year 3421. At the end of October 2025, Comet Lemmon will come as close as 0.6 AU (astronomical unit) to Earth. It could be conveniently appraised in our evening sky. In October and November, the comet might be beaming bewitchingly when peeped through binoculars. On 21 October 2025, it can be seen to the west of red giant star Arcturus (designated Swati at utterly 36.7 light-years) in the kite-resembling constellation Bootes (herdsman) and would appear to the east of the Big Dipper. 

The comet will slip by its perihelion on 8 November 2025, when it will be circa 0.53 AU from the Sun while dashing at 57.8 kilometers per second. 

In October, it will enter the tiny constellation Leo Minor (lesser lion). By 10 October 2025, it will be circumpolar for northern latitudes. On 16 October, it will make a tight tryst with charming star Cor Caroli and will move towards the southeast. Comet Lemmon will make a ravishing rendezvous with Earth from a spectacular slender span of approximately 0.60 AU on 21 October 2025. Optimistic predictions indicate that it will be discernible to the naked eye from sufficiently inky skies. An astronomical unit (AU) is the average distance between Earth and the Sun. It is now defined exactly as 149597870.70 kilometers.

(The author is an academician at NAST and patron of Nepal Astronomical Society or NASO)