October 2022
On & Off Earth
Earth is not big into statistics, that’s a human thing. We measure and calculate and interpret the data in an attempt to make sense of our chaotic planet. Hurricane season, on average, peaks September 10th, but not this year. Fiona and now Ian have put a minor kink in the averages and added late season storm awareness to all along the eastern seaboard. And, all will know much more about Ian by the time this column comes out.
What we can measure and predict with great precision and reliability is the daily appearance and departure of our nearby star. October begins with the sun rising just after 7am and setting just before 7pm; it rises after 7:30 and sets at 6:15 by month’s end. The extra darkness means more time to get out and check out the sky views off Earth.
Our clever ancestors also mapped and figured out the celestial comings and goings in the dark skies above their heads. So, if clouds allow a viewing, I can tell you that September will end and October begin with a waxing crescent moon above the southwestern horizon as twilight fades. The rusty red star just below the moon on September 30th is Antares, the heart of the constellation Scorpio. By October 5th, the now gibbous moon is to the lower left of Saturn. The moon will revisit Saturn on Halloween.
Three days later, on the 8th, the now nearly Full moon will spend the entire evening just below the King of the Planets, brilliant Jupiter. Bigger than all the other planets combined, and closer to Earth than in 59 years, Jupiter has just reached opposition, placing it directly behind the Earth from the sun, so it rises about sunset, sets in the west about dawn.
The Hunter or Blood Moon is October’s Full Moon on the 9th. The moon is brighter but Jupiter, still nearby, holds its own. Jupiter will remain big and bright in the evening sky into 2023. The sun spends the entire month in the sprawling constellation of Virgo.
For the second straight year (and 3 of the last 4) a cold front moved through on the Fall equinox and quickly flipped summer to fall. Southern air will be back (with Ian??) but October trends mean temperatures will continue to fall and leaves, already a few cut loose in our recent dry spell, will change colors and they too, will fall. It is a lovely time of year to get outside.
Something else is falling as well, next year’s baby trees. Those future trees, in the form of acorns from the oaks and nuts from the hickories, walnuts and beeches, are littering the forest floor in the thousands these days. Squirrels and their fellow rodent kin snacking now and storing for winter. The trees are counting on a few of those seeds being hidden too well and sprouting in the spring.
The largest (3.7cm/1 1/2”)of the acorns fall from the chestnut oak. The tree in the middle of my front yard clangs them off my roof, bounces them into the windows and while the odds of being hit are very low, an acorn on the head is a very real reminder that fall is here (yes, an acorn got me pretty good recently, ouch!). Please, don’t let that deter you from getting out and enjoying October.
NASA’s launch of Artemis, rescheduled for September 27th, has been scrubbed again, this time over concerns with Hurricane Ian. Long delayed but finally launched and fully operational, the James Webb space telescope has already returned stunning photos that are pushing our knowledge of the universe into new directions.
Next month: Was NASA’s DART spacecraft able to nudge an asteroid?
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