October 2026 provides several great reasons to spend some time looking at the night sky.
On October 4, Saturn reaches opposition, when Earth passes between Saturn and the Sun, making the ringed planet visible for much of the night and providing one of the year’s best opportunities to observe it. On October 6, early risers can see a thin crescent Moon close to bright Jupiter before sunrise.
Later in the month, the Orionid meteor shower peaks during the night of October 21 into the morning of October 22. The Orionids are produced by tiny pieces of debris left behind by famous Halley’s Comet; a bright waxing gibbous Moon will hide some of the fainter meteors this year, so NASA recommends looking during the few hours before dawn after the Moon has set.
Finally, on October 27–28, the Moon passes close to the beautiful Pleiades star cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters. The Pleiades can be seen without a telescope as a small, slightly fuzzy group of six or seven stars, although binoculars reveal many more. With Saturn, Jupiter, meteors, and one of the night sky’s most recognizable star clusters all making appearances, October is an excellent month to step outside and explore the sky with nothing more than your eyes or a simple pair of binoculars.
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