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The Late October Sky by Richard Camuccio / October 20, 2020As we progress through the month of October, we are faced with the changing of leaves, cooling of temperatures, and many interesting astronomical phenomena... Orionids and Transit of the Great Red Spot The Orionid meteor shower occurs each year between September 23rd and November 17th, caused by the passage of Earth through the debris field left behind by Comet 1P/Halley. The shower peak will occur around midnight on October 21st, with possible rates of up to 10-20 per hour. Although the peak rate is relatively infrequent, the Orionids are particular fast, reaching speeds of up to 66 kilometers (41 miles) per second. They should be quite noticeable if one observes as much of the sky as possible (using peripheral vision) and directed away from the radiant point of the shower in Orion's Club.Also taking place on October 21st is a transit of the Great Red Spot of Jupiter across its central meridian around 7:31 pm CDT. Any astronomers with modest aperture telescope and camera optics could capture this despite the sunlight of the evening sky. Ceres Completes Retrograde Loop On October 23rd, the dwarf planet Ceres will change direction in the sky, thereby completing its retrograde loop. In other words, the Earth will have overtaken Ceres in its orbit around the Sun. Ceres will be at a visual magnitude of 8.6,…

Add Your Heading Text Here Byline, Date Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo. Facebook Instagram Twitter Envelope Boeing’s new space capsule will undergo one of its most challenging tasks next month when it performs the pad abort test to ensure astronauts can eject safely from the spacecraft in the event of a launch mishap. The test will bring the CST-100 Starliner, part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, one step closer to flying Americans to space from U.S. soil for the first time since the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011. The test will prove crucial in determining whether Boeing, which was originally expected to fly humans for the first time in November, can keep with its current timeline or face further delays “Yes, we're flying later than we intended to,” acknowledged Ferguson, who previously flew three Space Shuttle missions, including the last. “But ultimately the focus is in the right place, and that is, we're not going to fly until we're ready. We're not going to fly it until we consider it safe for human space flight operations.” Ferguson, a retired Navy captain who has worked for Boeing since 2011, also talked about what it's like to be the “Boeing guy” training alongside NASA astronauts in Houston and the “friendly” competition on the commercial program with SpaceX, which…