October Skies
A brief overview of what to see in the sky with the unaided eye:

Stars and Constellations 
●    The constellations of Pegasus, Andromeda and Cassiopeia are convenient to view during October evenings
●    The “Great Square” of Pegasus is high in the eastern sky, or nearly overhead after dusk 
●    Andromeda extends toward the north from Pegasus
●    Cassiopeia is a familiar “W” shape and high in the northeastern sky during autumn evenings
●    The “Andromeda Galaxy” in Andromeda is visible as a fuzzy patch during clear and moonless nights away from light pollution, and is easy to spot from darker skies away from urban areas

Planets
●    Mercury becomes visible very low in the southwestern sky following sunset and reaches greatest eastern elongation from the sun October 29
●    Venus shines brilliantly low in the eastern sky before sunrise
●    Mars is visible very low in the southwestern sky following sunset and is close to Mercury the evenings of October 16-22
●    Jupiter rises after midnight during early October and before midnight later in the month, and shines brightly high in the southeastern pre-dawn sky in the Gemini constellation
●    Saturn is in the southeastern sky during October evenings in the Pisces constellation

Moon Phases
●    Full Moon October 6, 23:48 EDT
●    Last Quarter Moon October 13, 14:13 EDT
●    New Moon October 21, 08:25 EDT
●    First Quarter Moon October 29, 12:21 EDT

Noteworthy Sky Events
●    October 6: Harvest moon, when moon rises about 20 minutes later each night
●    October 19: Venus and crescent moon close together in pre-dawn sky
●    October 21: peak of the Orionid meteor shower 
●    Mid to late October: Comet Lemmon may become bright enough to see visually low in the NW sky. One source for updates is earthsky.org

Sky Resources Online
Some website resources for sky charts, weekly sky events, and more information:
●    astrogeo.ca/skylights
●    www.heavens-above.com
●    In-the-sky.org
●    www.skyandtelescope.org
●    www.skymaps.com

Star Chart for mid-October, mid-evening (courtesy of www.heavens-above.com):