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October’s Skywatching Treats for Halloween
The eastern sky these fine late October nights is filled with deep sky treats for stargazers of all types. There is a bit of something for everyone.
For the naked eye observer, the first of the brilliant stars of winter start to peek over the eastern horizon: Capella and Aldebaran. Three of the nearest galactic star clusters are visible to the naked eye: the Pleiades, the Hyades, and the Perseus Moving Cluster.
The October night sky map here provides a reference showing where to look to see this month’s night sky treats.
Space Activity Suit
Since the 1960s, NASA has also investigated spacesuits that utilize mechanical pressure rather than pressurized gas to protect an astronaut. Such a “space activity suit” is essentially an allover skin-tight leotard, which would be very lightweight and provide far less impediments to motion than traditional spacesuits. As well, a small tear in the suit would only affect the area exposed by the hole rather than cause a potentially deadly decompression event. The only area of the suit that would need to be pressurized is the astronaut’s helmet.
(Photograph by Douglas Sonders)
