🌌 StarPixels Skynotes for Wednesday, October 29 2025

Skynotes📍 Location: North Texas (Denton/Argyle)

🕒 Key Sky Times:

Moon phase: First Quarter (~50% illuminated)  Sunrise: 7:45 a.m.

CDT  Sunset: 6:39 p.m.

CDT  Astronomical twilight ends (evening): ~8:02 p.m. CDT 

🔭 Space Headlines:

A rare visitor, 3I/ATLAS, approaches perihelion on Oct 29 — only the third known interstellar object.  The upcoming month’s night‑sky planning: Late October in Texas offers darker skies post‑astronomical twilight — check the monthly guide from NASA.  Debate among scientists whether 3I/ATLAS’s tail behaviour indicates a comet or something more exotic. 

⚠️ Transient Alerts:

Stargazing in Texas: 3I/ATLAS (C/2025 N1) RA/Dec (J2000): ~ ??h ??m / ??° ??′ (precise value pending)

Constellation: Virgo (approximate) 

Estimated magnitude/brightness: ~ 14–15 (faint)

Best local window: TONIGHT/URGENT — though very low elongation from Sun makes ground‑viewing from North Texas extremely challenging.

Alt/Az at window start: N/A (too close to sun for standard night‑viewing)

🌫 Dew / Cloud / Seeing Note:

Expect moderate dew accumulation as evening air cools and radiative losses ramp up. Clouds may increase post‑sunset with front activity; seeing likely fair but not pristine — for deep sky photography pick shorter exposures and avoid heavy magnification.

🔍 Verified Visuals & Links:

Overview of 3I/ATLAS: https://www.planetary.org/articles/what-is-comet-3i-atlas News piece on unusual features: https://m.economictimes.com/news/international/us/why‑3i/atlas‑interstellar‑object‑is‑very‑mysterious‑and‑what‑will‑happen‑on‑october‑29‑heres‑its‑strange‑features‑will‑it‑come‑close‑to‑earth‑why‑are‑scientists‑puzzled‑unusual‑composition‑unexplained‑tail‑direction‑changes‑artificial‑probe/articleshow/124865284.cms Monthly sky guide October 2025: https://www.astronomy.com/observing/sky‑this‑month‑october‑2025/

🖼 New Space Telescope Images (last 24 h):

No major public image release from James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope or Euclid Space Telescope in the past 24 h — fallback to APOD: Astronomy Picture of the Day (Title: Check APOD for Oct 29 2025)

Clear skies and productive framing — Rick (StarPixels)