The Nighttime Sky for October-December, 2026:

The Planets:
The Season begins with very bright Venus in the western evening sky rapidly approaching the horizon and will reach inferior conjunction on October 24 leaving the evening sky. The planet will reappear in the morning sky in late November and December as the Morning Star. Saturn reached opposition on October 5 with its best appearance of the year. However, it is still in position for great viewing for the rest of the year. Mars is slowly growing brighter shining as a dull ruddy red star. Mars will be rising around 2 am in early October and around midnight by the end of the season. Jupiter is still a morning planet rising around 3 AM in early October but will be rising about 3 and a half minutes earlier each night will will rise around midnight in early November and shortly before 10 PM by the end of December.

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Venus	Mars	Jupiter	Saturn
All Pictures Taken in My Heavenly Backyard with my Telescopes

The Heavens
Autumn is the season of the Pleiades rising in the NE shortly after sunset and is seen as a fuzzy patch of stars. This is followed by Orion the Hunter which means that winter is not far behind. The Andromeda galaxy (M31) and one of its companion's, the Triangulum galaxy (M33) and are high in the ENE by 7 pm. One of the gems in the deep-space sky is the Rosette Nebula and is located near Orion. The Crab Nebula, the results of a star that exploded, rises around midnight while another exploded star forming the Helix Nebula, rises around sunset and is medium high in the southern sky at midnight. Messier 27, the Dumbbell Nebula is high overhead at sunset and visible until shortly after midnight. There are so many objects awaiting for us to view in a sky near you. (All the pictures were taken in my 'Heavenly Backyard'.)

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North America Nebula	The Pleiades	Dumbbell Nebula	Rosette Nebula
Crab Nebula	Helix Nebula	Andromeda Galaxy	Triangulum Galaxy
All Pictures Taken in My Heavenly Backyard with my Telescopes

Want to see more? ... Go to my Heavely Backyard Astronomy page: I will continue to add more images of the nighttime sky from my backyard and post on my astronomy page, My home page of Savannahpat.name and my Weather and Nature Facebook page along with any videos on my My You Tube Page ... All these pictures taken in my 'Heavenly' backyard.