OCTOBER will be a favourable month for seeing most of the planets. Mercury will be visible as an evening star—it reaches its greatest eastern elongation on October 28, when it will set an hour and a half after the sun. Without a telescope one can only conveniently see Mercury on these occasions of eastern elongation—choose a site with a good view of the western horizon and keep a sharp look-out just after sunset. Venus will also be visible in the evening sky. At the end of October this planet will set three hours after the sun. It will be a brilliant object (the stellar magnitude will be—3-8). On October 14 there will be a conjunction of Venus and Mars. Actual conjunction takes place at 11 hours, that is, in broad daylight, but the close positions of the two planets just after sunset on the following evening should form an interesting sight, especially if Mercury is seen as well. Jupiter will only just have passed its conjunction with the sun, and so will be invisible, but Saturn will again be visible in the southern sky throughout the night. Finally, Uranus will be in opposition on October 19.