As long, dark evenings creep in, lighter and brighter astral spectacles will enthral keen astronomy-tuned eyes in the Winter months.
If you look out your window tonight – or indeed if you looked out last night – you’ll see Luna shining in full glory back at you. You might notice it looks bigger and brighter than usual – or at least since we saw the Blue Moon last month.
September’s full moon was known as the Harvest moon, and it was a special one as it was the penultimate supermoon of the year – according to Space.com. With clear skies provided, the Harvest Moon should make it easy to spot other activity in the night sky, such as Jupiter, Saturn, and Mercury. It’s lingering effects make for a pretty night sky, even a few days later.
For those who caught a glimpse of the moon in full bloom, and who want to keep up to date with further other-worldly happenings, check out a small calendar of celestial events to expect for the coming months – visible from Limerick:
Beginning of October: Comet ‘103P/Hartley 2 will reach Gemini (Brightness magnitude 7).
October 4-10: World Space Week.
Second week of October: Comet ‘2P Encke’ should be in Virgo at peak brightness (magnitude 6).
October 18: Daylight occultation of Antares.
October 28: Partial lunar eclipse will be visible from Ireland.
November 12-19: Science Week in Ireland.
November 27: Normal full moon.
Find out more about the celestial cycle – here.
