&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/19010?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Starwatch%3A+The+October+night+sky%3AArticle%3A1638449&amp;ch=Science&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Astronomy+%28Science%29%2CSpace+%28Science%29%2CScience%2CSupernovae&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful&amp;c6=Alan+Pickup&amp;c7=11-Sep-25&amp;c8=1638449&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Feature&amp;c11=Science&amp;c13=Starwatch+%28series%29&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FScience%2FAstronomy&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;October is the month that Comet Elenin might have been visible to the naked eye as it climbed from Leo to Gemini in our E morning sky &ndash; its path was plotted in our Starwatch note on 12 September. In fact, observations appear to confirm that it disintegrated as it neared the Sun, so there is probably nothing to see as it sweeps harmlessly 35 million km from the Earth on the 16th. Meanwhile, the supernova in the galaxy M101, mentioned in the same note, is dimming slowly from the tenth magnitude.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Square of Pegasus is nearing the high meridian at our star map times as the Summer Triangle tumbles westwards and Taurus climbs in the E. Orion rises in the E an hour or two later, climbing into the S by dawn.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jupiter is outstanding as it comes to opposition on 29 October. At mag -2.8 to -2.9 and edging westwards in Aries, it rises in the ENE as the night begins and is highest at some 50&deg; in the S four hours after our map times. At opposition, Jupiter is 594 million km distant and shows a cloud-banded 50 arcsec disc through almost any telescope. The Moon is nearby on the 13th.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mars rises in the NE at about 01:15 BST on the 1st and at midnight GMT on the 31st. At mag 1.3 to 1.1 and moving from Cancer into Leo, it is well up in the ESE to SE before dawn, where it lies in front of the Praesepe star cluster on the 1st. It stands to the left of the waning Moon on the 21st and above it on the 22nd.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Observers will be out in force under moonlit skies at about 21:00 BST on the 8th when the Earth may plough through a meteoroid cloud from Comet Giacobini-Zinner. Over a three hour period, hundreds of unusually slow meteors may be seen in all directions as they diverge from a radiant near the Head of Draco, more than 60&deg; up in the NW. The same cloud produced storms of Draconid meteors in 1933 and 1946. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1st &lt;/strong&gt;	11h Mars 0.1˚ S of Praesepe&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4th&lt;/strong&gt; 	04h First quarter&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;8th&lt;/strong&gt; 	21h Outburst of Draconids meteors?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;12th&lt;/strong&gt; 	02h Full moon&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;13th&lt;/strong&gt; 	21h Moon 5˚N of Jupiter; 22h Saturn in conjunction with Sun&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;20th&lt;/strong&gt; 	04h Last quarter&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;22nd&lt;/strong&gt; 	01h Moon 6˚ S of Mars&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;16th&lt;/strong&gt; 	23h Venus 3˚ N of Antares.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;26th&lt;/strong&gt; 	21h New Moon Vernal equinox.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;29th&lt;/strong&gt; 	03h Jupiter at opposition&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;30th&lt;/strong&gt;	02h BST = 01h GMT Summer Time ends&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;*Times are BST&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/astronomy&quot;&gt;Astronomy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/space&quot;&gt;Space&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/supernovae&quot;&gt;Supernovae&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/alanpickup&quot;&gt;Alan Pickup&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;