Poster’s Note: The text for this month’s installment from Dee Sharples, “The Sky In October 2025,” is provided below. Those wishing to listen to the article can click on the audio link below.
Comet Lemmon (C/2025 A6) is a newly discovered comet currently traveling through our solar system toward the Sun. Predictions are that it won’t be visible to the naked eye – binoculars or a small telescope will be needed to see it.
By the middle of October, it will be only 20° above the horizon in the evening sky. Find a dark observing site and look for it in the west 90 minutes after sunset when the sky is fully dark. Around October 20th, it can be found low in the west in the vicinity of the bright orange star Arcturus. Photos have shown that the comet is displaying a greenish color, but its tail is primarily composed of gas, not dust, and appears very faint glowing with a bluish hue.
The Orionid meteor shower peaks in the early morning hours of Tuesday, October 21st. It is one of two meteor showers created by dust and debris left behind by Comet Halley when it visited our solar system. The other meteor shower is the Eta Aquarids which occurs in May. As the Earth travels through these streams of particles, they burn up in our atmosphere creating the meteor showers.
At its peak there will be a very dark sky without any moonlight to wash out the meteors, so you should be able to see about 20 per hour. Find a dark location away from any light pollution. Bring a blanket or chair, warm clothing, and a hot drink. Meteors will appear to originate from the radiant in the constellation Orion as shown on the star chart, but can be seen in any direction streaking across the sky. If you have binoculars, look for the Pleiades star cluster above and to the right of Orion.
The brilliant planet Venus at magnitude -3.9 can be easily spotted in the eastern sky in the morning this month and is always a stunning sight. The ringed planet Saturn, much dimmer at magnitude 0.7, can be seen moving across the sky all through the night – in the east in the evening, high in the south at midnight, and setting in the west in the early morning. It will look like a fairly bright yellowish-white star. The giant planet Jupiter at a bright magnitude -2.2 will rise at 12:30 a.m. in the eastern sky and will have moved to high in the southeast as the Sun starts to brighten the morning sky.
Daylight saving time will end on Sunday, November 2nd. At 2:00 a.m. set your clocks back one hour to standard time.
