Hello ! There's plenty going on in the world of astronomy this month, and much to see in the night sky. Bright planets, the lingering arc of the Milky Way, a preview of the bright constellations of northern summer and southern winter, even a couple of meteor showers. Here are your astronomical highlights for October 2021!

 

1. First, here's your monthly guide to the Night Sky This Month.

 

2. Take a look at the dazzling Crescent Nebula, a glowing shell of gas from a rare 'Wolf-Rayet' star that resembles a gigantic cosmic brain. A great target for imagers, and a fine challenge for visual observers as well.

 

3. The redoubtable Timothy Ferris, the finest astronomy writer of the last half century, has assembled a series of low-key but thoughtful videos on a range of subjects, from the Voyager Golden Record (which he produced) to quantum computing, to 'who wrote the book of love'. The entire list of short videos is available on YouTube at this link.

 

4. Astronomers have discovered a new class of habitable worlds.

 

5. My friend and colleague Terry Hancock has won the Astrophotographer of the Year Award from Royal Greenwich Observatory in the 'stars and nebulae' category. A very short video about his work and his winning image (of the California Nebula) at this link.

 

6. Bob King takes you on a tour of the many splendid open star clusters in the constellation Cassiopeia.

 

7.Here's a fascinating piece: did a giant space rock obliterate an ancient middle-eastern city? Some think this might be the source of the Biblical story of the destruction of Sodom. Whatever it was, it was a bad day for the inhabitants of this city 3,600 years ago.

 

8. If you could have just one telescope, which one would you choose? Ed Ting gives his considered opinion on the subject, an opinion with which I agree.

 

9. Just two more months until the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launches. Here's why this telescope is a big deal for astronomy.

 

10. And finally, on the same subject of the JWST, here's how engineers are planning to deploy this technological wonder a million miles from Earth, far from any chance of being fixed or tweaked by any astronauts. They have just one chance to get this right!

 

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Clear Skies!

 

Brian Ventrudo

Publisher