The comet Garradd is expected to reach magnitude 8 this month, meaning it should be easily visible through small telescopes and even binoculars. The comet which is in such an obscure orbit that this will probably be its one and only visit to this region of space. Perihelion, the comets closest passage of the sunwill occur on Dec 23rd and its closest passage to Earth, a mere 117.7million miles away, will be on march 5th 2012. Scientists are quitely confident that Garradd will become a magnitude 6, or naked eye object sometime in february.

I hope its a nice spectacular 1 the last decent 1 I remember woz halle boppe and remember as a kid seein haleys comet

Another satellite is due to fall out of orbit in November. More details as and when I can find any!

October is a relatively busy month for , with not one but two minor meteor showers. The Draconids and the Orionids. The latter, appearing to eminate from the constellation of Orion, is a weak shower that will peak 21/22oct with an approx max intensity of 10-20/hour. The Draconids however may prove to be a lot more interesting.

The Draconid shower is usually another 'weak' 10-20/hr shower but occasionly is much more spectacular. The shower occurs when the earth passes through a trail of debri left behind by the comet 21P/Giacobini-Zimmer. Nobody can predict exactly how intense the shower will be but in 1952, 1985 and 1998 it reached a count of 100's per hour and in the great meteor storms of 1933 and 1946 it is said the count exceeded 10,000 per hour!!! As luck would have it, scientists believe the earth is due to pass through the same high density debri patch it did in 33 and 46!

It will peak in intensity on Oct 8th, just 3 days before the full moon on the 12th, so viewing conditions will be less than ideal!

Weather forcast not good

Leonidshower will peak on Nov 18th but the rate is expected to be quite low this year, just 10-15per hour, not helped by a waning moon.