* Astronomy

The magnitude 16.9 asteroid 6958 (1988 TX1) will occult the magnitude 4.3 star HIP 4906  in the constellation Pisces, at 11:58 UT, 22nd October, 2009.
The event will be visible from Western Canada and Indonesia.
The brightness of the star will drop to 16.9 mag (the magnitude of the asteroid) for less than 0.8 seconds.

Position(2000): RA 01 02 56.5555,   Dec +07 53 24.736

Reminder:
Set your alarms early for the waning crescent moon and three planets....

Three planets, Mercury, Venus and Saturn, near to the Moon in the early morning skies of the 16th October, 2009.
Look towards the East before the Sun rises.


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The event is best seen with the naked eye, but if anyone has a camera it would make for a nice picture.
Choose the lowlight option on most digital cameras should capture the three planets nicely.

Stealing the show in the southern evening sky this autumn is the gloriously bright planet Jupiter. Blazing at magnitude - 2.6, the fifth planet from the sun outshines all of the night stars and only Venus and the moon gleam brighter (and a rare fireball).
If you have even a small telescope, be certain to train it this way. You will at once see s small, white disc - the planet, and as many as four "stars" more or less in  a row on either side. These are the four brightest moons of Jupiter, discovered by the great astronomer Galileo on January 7, 1610. Their names in order of distance from the planet are Io, Europa, Ganeymede Ganymede and Callisto.

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