New York Sky Viewing for October 17-23, 2009

Planets
Mercury is heading back toward the Sun in the pre-dawn hours. Throughout the week, you might be able to see it (binoculars will help) low in the east (below brighter Venus) within an hour of sunrise. Venus also heads sunward this week, but the bright planet rises an hour and a half before the Sun. Look for it low in the east at dawn. Saturn also appears in the morning, now rising a couple of hours before the Sun. You can find it about 10 to 15 degrees above Venus in the east. Jupiter remains the brightest evening object, other than the Moon, high in the southern sky at sunset and setting between 1:15 and 1:30 in the morning throughout the week. Mars rises right around midnight throughout the week and will be high in the southern sky at sunrise.

Moon
The New Moon falls on Saturday night this week and will hide behind the Sun for the weekend. Look for the Moon to reappear as a thin crescent in the west on Monday and Tuesday after sunset. First Quarter is not until next Sunday, so the Moon will be in the southwest in the evenings all week.

Stars
This week may be your last chance to view the bright red star, Antares, in the constellation of Scorpius. Look for the star on Wednesday evening, about an hour after sunset - the best views should be around 7 PM. The crescent Moon will lie only about 3 degrees to the east.

Spectacular Sights
The Orionid meteor shower occurs this week. With meteors appearing to emanate from the region around Orion, there could be as many as 30 meteors per hour when close to the peak of activity. Look for that peak on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. The Orionids should start to appear in the post-midnight skies by Sunday morning. With the Moon visible only in the evenings, you should have dark skies to view one of the year's best meteor showers.

Click here to see rising and setting times for this week.

Click here to view the New York City sky viewing archive.