The Sky This Week - Thursday October 10 to Thursday October 17

The Full Moon is Monday October 14.  Venus and Mercury climb higher in the evening twilight. Jupiter is easily visible as the brightest object in the western evening skies. Saturn is near Jupiter, is high in the north-western evening skies.

The Full Moon is Monday October 14. The Moon is at apogee, when it is furthest form the Earth, on the 11th.

Sky at 20:54 ACDST on Saturday 12 October (90 minutes after sunset) looking west as seen from Adelaide. Jupiter is above the western horizon. Saturn is high above the north-western horizon. Mercury is low above the western horizon

The left upper insert shows the telescopic view of Jupiter at 20:54. The left lower inset shows the telescopic view of Saturn at the same time and scale

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia 90 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen.

The western horizon at 20:54 Saturday 12 October (30 minutes after sunset) as seen from Adelaide. Mercury and Venus are now clearly visible above the horizon .

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia 30 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen.

The whole sky at 20:23 ACST on Saturday 12 October. (60 minutes after sunset) as seen from Adelaide. All 4 bright planets and Antares form a line in the evening sky.

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time (30 minutes after sunset), click to embiggen.

Venus is low above the western horizon in the evening twilight. Venus is now readily seen 30 minutes after sunset. Mercury is above Venus in the evening twilight.

Mercury is climbing higher above the western horizon in the evening twilight as is visible for at least an hour after sunset..

Jupiter is now well past opposition. However, it is still well worth observing in the early evening. Jupiter is easily visible as the brightest object in the western sky (aside from the Moon) and is located beside the distinctive constellation of Scorpius and the bright red star Antares. It is visible all evening long and is a good telescope target in the early evening.

Mars is lost in the twilight.

Saturn  is to the east of Jupiter and near the “handle” of the “teapot of Sagittarius. It is best for telescopic viewing from just around astronomical twilight local time until the early morning.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what’s up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.

Star Map via Virtual sky. Use your mouse to scroll around and press 8 when your pointer is in the map to set to current time.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/