Skywatcher's Guide: October and November 2026

Skywatcher's Guide written by: Lucas Snyder (Flandrau Planetarium Specialist)

Navigation

• Stars and Constellations
• Solar System
• Calendar of Night Sky Events
• Deep Sky
• Frequently Asked Questions

Stars and Constellations

In October, only a small portion of the spring sky is still visible at the beginning of the night.  The Big Dipper (Ursa Major) is low in the north-northwest.  As always, the last two stars in the bowl point to Polaris, our north star, in the Little Dipper (Ursa Minor).  You can also still follow the arc of the handle of the Big Dipper to Arcturus, the bright star in Boötes, now low in the west-northwest.  The summer constellations are also visible for a good portion of the night, starting the night in the middle of the sky.  The Summer Triangle is almost directly overhead, with Vega closest to the west-northwest, Deneb closest to the northeast, and Altair closest to the south.  The summer Milky Way is still prominently streaking across the sky, cutting from the northeast to the southwest.  Scorpius with the bright star Antares is now getting low in the southwest, and the nearby "teapot" of Sagittarius in the south-southwest.  The fall sky is now very prominent, taking up most of the eastern sky at the beginning of the night.  The "W" of Cassiopeia is easy to spot in the northeast, with Perseus just below.  The Great Square of Pegasus is up in the east, and Andromeda nearby in the east-northeast.  There is also a fairly bright star called Fomalhaut in the southeast, though its constellation Piscis Austrinus is not easy to distinguish.

In November, all but a few of the spring stars are now gone, and the summer constellations are starting to get lower in the west.  Deneb is the highest point of the Summer Triangle, with Vega below to the west, and Altair towards the southwest.  The brightest part of the summer Milky Way is now gone, but a good portion of it is still easy to distinguish.  Scorpius is now gone, but the "teapot" of Sagittarius is still above the horizon in the southwest.  The fall sky is now a little higher, but still in the eastern half of the sky.  We can now begin to see a few winter stars coming up along the eastern horizon, namely the bright Capella in the northeast and Aldebaran in the east-northeast.  Also look for the Pleiades (aka the Seven Sisters or Subaru) star cluster just above Aldebaran.

Interesting Stars Visible in October and November (between 7 and 10 pm)

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Solar System

Mercury is low in the west at sunset for most of October, passes between us and the Sun in early November, and then appears in the east before sunrise for the rest of the month.

Venus is low in the west in early October, but passes between us and the Sun later in the month.  Then it becomes visible in the east before sunrise in early November, getting a little higher each morning.

Mars is high visible in the morning sky, high in the east in early October and moving to the south by late November.  It is moving through Cancer and into Leo.

Jupiter is in Leo, fairly high in the east in the morning sky in early October and ending up high in the south by late November..

Saturn is in Pisces, low in the east at sunset in early October, and making its way to the southeast by the end of November.

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Calendar of Night Sky Events

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Deep Sky

There are many deep sky objects we can see since the summer Milky Way is high in the sky.  There are many open star clusters that can be seen with only binoculars scanning this part of the sky.  For example we have the Butterfly Cluster (M6) and Ptolemy's Cluster (M7) near the tail of Scorpius.  Further north there is the Wild Duck Cluster (M11) in the faint constellation of Scutum between Sagittarius and Aquila.  There is also the asterism of the Coathanger between Aquila and Cygnus in the fainter constellation of Vulpecula.  Next, heading towards the west we can see the Coma Star Cluster in the constellation of Coma Berenices, which is even visible naked-eye.  The Pleiades (M45) will be visible later in the night, after midnight.

There are a several globular clusters we can see as well, as the center of our galaxy is the highest it gets for the year.  Near the bright star Antares in Scorpius lies the globular cluster M4.  In Sagittarius we also have the Teapot Cluster (M22).  Of course we have the famous Hercules globular (M13) high in the east.  Also, M15 is visible in the east near the head of Pegasus.

For nebulae, we have several in the plane of the galaxy, one of which is the Swan Nebula (M17) in Sagittarius, also known as the Omega Nebula.  There is also the Lagoon Nebula (M8) nearby and the North America Nebula (C20) further north in Cygnus.  For planetary nebulae we have the Ring Nebula (M57) in Lyra, the Dumbell Nebula (M27) in Vulpecula, and the Blue Snowball (C22) in Andromeda.

And now the galaxies:  Although the Big Dipper is getting lower in the sky, you may still be able to find some of the galaxies in this part of the sky.  We have the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) and the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) near the handle, and the Cigar Galaxy (M82) and Bode's Galaxy (M81) near the bowl.  The spectacular Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is now coming up in the northeast, along with the nearby Triangulum Galaxy (M33).

Interesting Deep Sky Objects to Observe during October and November (between 7 and 10 pm)

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can you tell me about the new Roman Space Telescope?

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope was launched on August 30 and joins a fleet of 10 other active NASA space observatories.  Three of these (Hubble, Webb, and SPHEREx) operate in wavelength ranges that partially overlap with Roman, but Roman stands out in its capabilities.  For example, Hubble and Webb have narrow fields of view, which is good for imaging specific targets in deep space.  Roman and SPHEREx have wide fields of view, which is good for surveying many targets at once and mapping large regions of the sky.  Roman is special, though, because of its resolution.  Its camera is made of 18 4K detectors, which combine into a single 300 megapixel image.  It has angular resolution similar to Hubble, but covers an area hundreds of times larger.  Because of this, it will be able to map large structures in the universe and look for small things like exoplanets at the same time.  When Roman begins its primary mission early next year, it will be sending back 1.4 terabytes of data every day, the highest data rate of any NASA astrophysics mission so far.

In its primary mission, Roman will be looking mainly at three areas of the sky:  the two galactic polar regions and the galactic disk.  In the polar regions, it will be mainly studying distant galaxies: measuring redshift, mapping clusters, and looking for supernovae.  These regions also partially overlap the ecliptic, so they expect to find some new objects in our solar system as well.  In the disk it will be looking at star-forming regions, black holes, variable stars, and exoplanets.  They estimate that they will discover up to 100,000 new exoplanets in this survey!

Roman is currently on its way to the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2, the same region where Webb and a couple other observatories reside.  It has already begun testing and calibrating its instruments before arriving in early December.  Then it will just do some final tests (pointing and data transfer) before beginning full science operations in early 2027.  It's going to be pretty exciting to see what kind of data Roman will return!

If you have any questions you'd like me to answer in the next issue of SWG, please let me know.  I'm also happy to take suggestions or comments, and also pictures if you'd like to send them.  Happy viewing!

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Date of publication: 2026