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What’s up in the night sky: October 2026

Welcome to our night sky monthly feature, where we focus on easy and fun things to see in the night sky, mostly with just your eyes. This month: Saturn reaches opposition, which is a great time to observe it, and Mars and Jupiter get much closer in the sky.

All month: Very bright, white Jupiter rises in the middle of the night and is high up high up in the pre-dawn sky. It grows closer to reddish Mars over the month leading towards a very close sky encounter in early November.

All month: Reddish Mars is up in the late night and morning eastern sky, located above very bright Jupiter. It continues to gradually brighten as Earth draws closer to it in orbit.

Oct. 4: Saturn is at opposition, directly opposite the Sun from Earth. It rises around sunset, stays visible all night long, and sets around sunrise. It is the brightest of the year.

Oct. 5: The Moon is between Mars and Jupiter. 

Oct. 5, 2026 night sky snapshot
Oct. 5, 2026 night sky snapshot A beautiful lineup in the pre-dawn east of reddish Mars, a crescent Moon, yellowish Saturn, and Regulus. (Pasadena, California. Latitude: about 34 degrees north.)Image: Bruce Betts/The Planetary Society using Stellarium.

Oct. 10: New Moon.

Oct. 15, 2026 night sky snapshot
Oct. 15, 2026 night sky snapshot All month in the northern hemisphere, the ‘northern triangle,’ an unofficial term for the three bright stars Vega, Altair, and Deneb (in the constellations Lyra, Aquila, and Cygnus, respectively), is high overhead and easy to see in the evening sky.Image: Bruce Betts/The Planetary Society using Stellarium.

Oct. 21-22: The Orionids meteor shower peaks. The Orionids are a weak to medium-strength shower, typically producing up to 20 meteors per hour from a dark viewing site. They are caused by dust and debris left behind by Comet Halley. Moonlight will interfere this year, limiting visibility.

Oct. 23, 2026 night sky snapshot
Oct. 23, 2026 night sky snapshot Yellowish Saturn near the Moon. (Pasadena, California. Latitude: about 34 degrees north.)Image: Bruce Betts/The Planetary Society using Stellarium.

Oct. 25: Full Moon.

The Milky Way over Glacier Point, Yosemite National Park

Learn more about the Night Sky

Our journey to know the Cosmos and our place within it starts right outside our windows, in the night sky. Get weekly reports on what's visible and learn how to become a better backyard observer.

Bruce Betts

Bruce Betts

Chief Scientist / LightSail Program Manager for The Planetary Society
Read more articles by Bruce Betts