Earthsky.org - 10/13/13

The brightest object in the west after sunset is Venus, and the red star Antares is near Venus. They’ll be closest on October 16. But there’s another reddish star you might notice as well, and this one is likely to be flashing colors. Many people comment at this time of year on the star Arcturus, which you can read more about below. Plus here’s a cool configuration in the predawn sky now: Comet ISON is lining up with the planet Mars and star Regulus in the east. You’ll need a telescope to see the comet, but, even without one, it’s fun to imagine it up there with Mars and Regulus, getting brighter. Hopefully, it’ll become bright enough that we can see the comet after its closest approach to the sun on November 28, 2013.

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Isoncampaign.org- 10/9/13, Karl

Comet ISON is doing just fine! It continues to behave like a fairly typical, if somewhat smaller-than-average, Oort Cloud comet. It has given no indication that it has fragmented and while such an event can never be ruled out, we see no evidence or hint that the comet is in any imminent danger of doing so. Any reports to the contrary are just speculation.

How can we be so sure? Because we can see the comet! Opposite is just one more recent example of an extremely high-quality image of ISON taken by Nick Howes, Ernesto Guido and Martino Nicolini as part of a series of daily imaging sequences they have been recording to help study the morphology (shape, size, etc) of comet ISON.

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EyesontheSky.com - 10/7/13

Earthsky.org - 10/1/13, Bruce McClure, Deborah Byrd

Only one planet is easily visible at nightfall around the world in October 2013: Venus. Venus beams mightily in the west at dusk, as seen from across the Earth. You can’t miss it. It sets roughly two hours after sunset at mid-northern latitudes in early October, and about two-and-one-half hours after the sun by the month’s end. Venus! It’s the beautiful “evening star.”

Saturn can also be seen from around the world – near Venus after sunset – as October begins. It’s much more visible from Earth’s Southern Hemisphere than from northerly latitudes. Why? Because the ecliptic, or path of the planets, places objects in evening twilight straight above the sunset in spring, instead of to one side of the sunset, as in autumn.

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Earthsky.org - 10/1/13, Bruce McClure

On Tuesday (October 1, 2013), this year’s most anticipated comet – Comet ISON – will sweep closely past the Red Planet Mars. It’ll be on its way to a Thanksgiving Day (November 28) encounter with the sun, and hopefully to a good showing in Earth’s night sky. Right now, amateur astronomers with telescopes and photographic equipment are the main ones capturing images of Comet ISON. And they are sure to be trying already to captured Mars and the comet in the same photo in the predawn sky. But NASA and ESA are also readying a flotilla of spacecraft in Mars orbit or on Mars’ surface, which will attempt to record the comet’s passage near Earth’s neighboring planet.

And we do mean near. On October 1, Comet ISON will pass within 0.07 AU from Mars. That’s about six times closer than the comet will ever come to Earth.