Cosmic dust and a solar eclipse: Get your glasses for viewing | The Sky Guy

Ken Kopczynski
·3 min read

Look up and all around, there's a lot to see this month.

Cosmic debris

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx delivered a capsule containing rocks and particles from the asteroid Bennu on Sunday, Sept. 24. Launched in September 2016, OSIRIS-REx spent a couple of years orbiting Bennu. After collecting this sample in October 2020, the space craft dropped off the sample as it passed by on its way to another asteroid.

Eclipse reminder

There will be a partial solar eclipse on Oct. 14 beginning just before noon and ending just before 3 p.m. Join TAS and the Challenger Learning Center on Kleman Plaza to view the partial eclipse (weather permitting). TAS will have several telescopes set up and the Challenger is selling special solar glasses for $2 each to safely view this event.

International Observe the Moon Night

Join TAS and the Challenger Learning Center for International Observe the Moon Night from 6-9 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 21 (weather permitting). TAS will have several telescopes set up and we will be running a show on lunar eclipses in the planetarium.

Morning sky: Venus rises in the east around 4 a.m. and is very bright so you can’t miss it. Mercury has entered the Sun’s glare and is not visible. Watch the Moon pass a couple of bright stars and planets, see below for dates.

Evening sky: Saturn rises around 6:30 p.m. in early October and around 4:30 p.m. at the end of the month. Brilliant Jupiter rises around 9:30 p.m. in early October and by 7:30 p.m. by month’s end. Mars is lost in the Sun’s glare. Watch the Moon pass a couple of bright stars and planets, see below for dates.

1st – 2nd: Moon close to Jupiter in the evening into the morning sky.

2nd: Moon near Pleiades star cluster (also known as Subaru) in the evening into the morning sky.

6th: Last quarter Moon.

7th: Moon close to the bright stars Castor and Pollux in Gemini in the morning sky.

7th: Tallahassee Astronomical Society’s free planetarium show, “October Skies over Tallahassee,” at the Downtown Digital Dome Theatre and Planetarium at the Challenger Learning Center (not recommended for children under 5). Doors close at 10 a.m. sharp.

8th: Moon near the Beehive cluster in Cancer the Crab in the morning sky.

9th: Venus near bright star Regulus in Leo the Lion in the morning sky.

10th: Crescent Moon, Regulus and Venus form a line in the morning sky.

14th: New Moon.

14th: Join TAS and the Challenger Learning Center on Kleman Plaza to view partial solar eclipse from noon until 3 p.m. (see above for details).

18th: Moon near bright star Antares in Scorpius the Scorpion set together in the west just after sundown.

21st: Join TAS and the Challenger Learning Center for International Observe the Moon Night 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. (see above for details).

21st – 22nd: Orionid meteor shower peaks.

22nd: First quarter Moon.

23rd – 24th: Moon near Saturn in the evening into the morning sky.

28th – 29th: Full Moon near Jupiter in the evening into the morning sky.

Check out TAS’s events calendar at tallystargazers.org.

Ken Kopczynski is a former president of the Tallahassee Astronomical Society, a local group of amateur astronomers.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Get glasses for partial solar eclipse viewing at Kleman Plaza