Maya: Good evening, and welcome to Mahrin Night Skies for Sunday, October the fourth, twenty twenty-six. Tonight is the night we have been counting down to all week.
Devon: That is right, Maya. Tonight, Saturn reaches opposition, which means Earth sits directly between the Sun and the ringed planet. Saturn rises right around sunset and stays up all night, and this is the biggest and brightest it gets all year.
Maya: Look toward the southeast once the sky is truly dark, around eight fifteen P M, and you will see a steady golden star hanging about thirty-five degrees above the horizon. That is Saturn. Through a small telescope you can make out the rings, and even Titan, its largest moon, as a tiny star-like dot nearby.
Devon: And the moon is cooperating beautifully tonight. We are at a waning crescent, just past third quarter, and only about thirty-five percent of the disc is lit. Moonrise is not until around twelve thirty A M, so the entire evening is moon-free. These are the darkest Sunday evening skies we have had in weeks.
Maya: The new moon is Friday, which makes the next few nights prime deep-sky time. The Milky Way's bright core is setting earlier each evening, so these are nearly your last chances to catch it this year. And the Andromeda galaxy is riding high in the east, a faint smudge that becomes obvious under dark skies, especially near the new moon.
Devon: The autumn constellations are on the move. The Summer Triangle still hangs overhead in the early evening, Cassiopeia's unmistakable W is climbing the northeast, and Pegasus, the great square, is rising in the east with Andromeda trailing behind it.
Maya: Turning to the planets in the morning sky, Venus is bowing out of the evening. It is sinking lower in the western twilight each night on its way to inferior conjunction on October twenty-fourth, when it slips between Earth and the Sun.
Devon: Mars is a morning planet now, rising around one A M. Set your alarm for tomorrow morning and you will see the waning crescent moon paying Mars a close visit in the pre-dawn sky. And Jupiter, bright and creamy white, is the beacon of the eastern sky before sunrise.
Maya: Mark your calendar for Tuesday morning, October sixth. The waning crescent moon passes right by Jupiter. If you are in the eastern or central U S, the moon actually covers Jupiter for a time, but from California we will see a lovely close pairing instead.
Devon: Thursday night is the Draconids, the night of October eighth into the ninth. This one is a rare evening shower, so you do not have to stay up late. Look toward the northwest just after dark. Rates are usually modest, maybe five an hour, but this shower is famous for surprise outbursts, and the skies will be dark with no moonlight at all.
Maya: A few more things to look forward to. Mercury reaches its best evening appearance of the fall on October twelfth, low in the west just after sunset. The asteroid four Vesta, the brightest asteroid, reaches opposition on October thirteenth and is reachable with binoculars. And the Southern Taurids are active right now, tossing slow bright fireballs across the sky, with the Orionids peaking on the twenty-first and twenty-second.
Devon: Now for viewing conditions, and this is the best news. We are in the middle of a genuine heat wave, with a heat advisory in effect through Wednesday, and that means the marine layer is staying offshore. Tonight is mostly clear, cooling from the eighties around seven P M to the low sixties overnight.
Maya: Mount Tamalpais ridgelines or Point Reyes are both excellent calls tonight. Give your eyes a full twenty minutes to adjust, and your best window is from eight fifteen P M, once the sky is truly dark, until moonrise around twelve thirty A M.
Devon: One more stop, the space weather desk. Noah's Space Weather Prediction Center issued a minor G one geomagnetic storm alert early this morning, when the K index hit five at four twenty-two A M, driven by a coronal hole high-speed stream. Tonight we are at active to unsettled levels, and it eases off over the next two days.
Maya: Honest aurora report for Northern California: this one stays north. The display might reach the northern tier of the country, places like northern Michigan and Maine, but not the Bay Area. If you are up after midnight you can glance north just in case, but do not lose sleep over it.
Devon: So to sum up tonight: Saturn at its biggest and brightest of twenty twenty-six, moon-free skies until half past midnight, and the Draconids just four nights away. That is a fine Sunday night in Mahrin.
Maya: We will be back tomorrow evening with another look up. Clear skies, everyone.