October - ISS pass tonight, Mars closest, plenty of planets

Hi everyone!  We're still not cleared to bring telescopes out on public sidewalks, but luckily there are plenty of viewing opportunities from your own location. I'm sure those looking up have noticed bright reddish Mars in the E-SE sky.  With the smoke, it looks even redder!  Mars will be great to view all month -- it is at opposition October 13 (closest on October 6th), but will thrill skywatchers for another month. Jupiter and Saturn can be spotted low in the SE sky this month. We have a second full moon on Halloween. Finally, tonight Oct 8th, the ISS passes high overhead. Time: Thu Oct 08 7:09 PM, Visible: 6 min, Max Height: 82 (90° is straight overhead).  Appears: 10° above NW, Disappears: 11° above S.  Good luck.  You can sign up to receive your own ISS alerts at https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/ NASA's What's Up podcast for October is here: https://youtu.be/CaSyuJPJfGM There are many gorgeous sketches and photos of Mars out there on the internet.  Here's one of my favorite sites APOD https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201006.html, and here's my very favorite recent sketch by the great astrophotographer (and a good friend of ours) Damian Peach. https://twitter.com/peachastro/status/1311320112880906240/photo/1 That's all for now, send me questions or observations or just to say hi :-) Miss you all!   Jane -- Jane Houston Jones, retired JPLer *:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-: Twitter: @jhjones @otastro http://www.otastro.org/ Astronomy, travel, music, food, cats