The Night Sky October 2025
Our days are now noticeably shorter, more timer, weather permitting, for astronomy whether visual or imaging.
The above link is an excellent site for the latest information on what to see as well as containing a live planetarium.
The Moon
We start the month with the Moon in the 10th day of its current phase, so slightly gibbous, reaching full phase on the 7th October. The next new phase starts on the 21st October, Trafalgar Night for the ex-RN folk like me.
On 10th October the Moon will be occulting part of the Pleiades, this will be a dawn event.
Meteor showers.
The Orionid meteor shower commences on the 2nd October and lasts until the 7th November. The cause of this shower is the trail of debris left by the 76 year cycle Halley’s comet. Its radiant point is shown below close to the raised arm of Orion. However it does move from above Orion’s head out to his arm over the period.
The Orionids peak on October 21st, a good time to observe as the Moon will just be starting its new phase.
The Planets
Mercury: Very low on the horizon in the west after sunset.
Venus: Is getter lower in the morning sky as the month progresses, but still shines at -3.9 magnitude. Venus has phases and at the start of the month it is 91% full and grows to 96% by the end of the month. However its size is reducing as it becomes farther away from us.
Mars: Mars is heading further west and becoming more difficult to spot.
Jupiter: Is at quadrature this month on 17th October. This will means that shadows from its Galilean Moons will be able to pass across the sunlit surface. This month it will be rising within the constellation of Gemini late evening and will brighten ton +2.3 magnitude. On 31st October it will reach 58º, this means it is at an ideal height for observing.
https://theskylive.com/galilean-moons
The above link will give you a live view of the Jovan moons positions to help you identify them.
Saturn: This is a through the night planet and can be found in Aquarius. On 6th October at 02:18 BST a shadow transit of Titan will commence and last until 05:51 BST. Another transit occurs from 23:42 to 04:40 BST on the 21st October and there are two occultations on 13th October at 2350 BST and 20:36 on the 29th October.
https://theskylive.com/saturn-rings-and-moons
Again the above link will provide the details on the Saturnian moons positions.
Uranus: To observe this gas planet in October it can be found 4.5° south of the Pleiades.
Neptune: Neptune is close to Saturn so this blue planet should be easier to locate 36° above the horizon, it will me magnitude +7.8.
The stars:
The Milky Way will be overhead which means the densest part we see in the northern hemisphere will be nicely visible to those with a darker sky. Running through Cygnus in the west, Cassiopeia directly overhead and down to Auriga in the east.
Andromeda and its galaxy will also positioned high in the sky which offers good opportunity to view and image M31 our closest galactic neighbour.
For those of you up around midnight will see the Pleiades rising in the east, followed by Taurus.
Taurus and the Pleiades will now be with us until February 2026. While looking at the Pleiades have a look at the head of Taurus the Hyades. Both are stunning in a pair of binoculars. Below a quick image of M1 in Taurus taken on 1st October
