Above Washington / Oregon Coast: Astronomy of Halloween, Planets, Meteors

Published 10/29/24 at 12:50 a.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Oceanside, Oregon) – Is this Halloween going to be a giant trick or a delectable treat for those hitting the Oregon coast or Washington coast? (Above: Manzanita with a meteor streak.)

It's going to be both – in the astronomical sense. Forget the spooks and goblins. Not only is Halloween an actual point of interest in astronomy but there's a few interesting things going on in the skies above places like Westport, Yakima, Cannon Beach, Portland or Port Orford. Shooting stars, maybe a bright fireball and some planets are also on the menu.

October 31 of every year is not just the old Celts' celebration of All Hallows' Eve, but it's also a marker in astronomy, said OMSI astronomy expert Jim Todd.

“It is the modern-day descendant of Samhain, a sacred festival of the ancient Celts and Druids in the British Isles,” Todd told Oregon Coast Beach Connection. “But it’s also a cross-quarter day, so Samhain occurred when it did. A cross-quarter day is a day midway between an equinox and a solstice.”

The night skies above Bandon have yielded some amazing things lately, like the Northern Lights. - Manuela Durson Fine Arts

Yet it turns out the holiday itself is more of an approximation, becoming the fixed date of October 31 by western civilization's tradition.

“The true cross-quarter day falls on November 7, representing a discrepancy of about one week,” Todd said. “According to the ancient Celts, a cross-quarter day marks a season's beginning, not the middle.”

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Todd said there are eight major subdivisions of the seasons during the year. March and September are the equinoxes, and June and December have the solstices. Then there are the cross-quarter days: called Groundhog Day (February 2), May Day (May 1), Lammas (August 1), and Halloween (October 31).

Other recent sights along the Oregon coast include Comet A3 (seen here in Portland - Oregon Coast Beach Connection photo), although it is gone now.

This year, look up on Halloween and you'll find no moon – but weather permitting – three bright planets. Venus keeps showing up low on the horizon, Saturn is the spectacular bright spot in the south / southeast (it's been stunning this fall), and after 10 p.m. Jupiter shows up and dominates.

For some real treats, however, it's the Taurid meteor showers that have been making quite a show here and there, and they'll continue to do so through mid November. Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff spotted a major one late Sunday when the skies briefly cleared.

Fireball photo NASA

The Taurids may let you see 5 to 10 of these throughout the early month, if you get a break in weather in areas like Seaside, Bandon, Manzanita or Reedsport.

Scientists say this one's got a few tricks up its sleeve, however. Mostly, the Taurids are from the debris left behind by Comet 2P/Encke, but they're seeing a host of near-Earth asteroids and other fragments overlapping the usual Taurids.

The Taurids can result in actual fireballs, which is a rare sight where an object larger than a usual tiny asteroid particle makes an extremely bright and slow descent, exploding somewhat as it goes down.

Oregon Coast Beach Connection has seen this twice. Spectacular Green Fireball Lights Up Oregon Valley Through Washington Coast

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Andre' GW Hagestedt is editor, owner and primary photographer / videographer of Oregon Coast Beach Connection, an online publication that sees over 1 million pageviews per month. He is also author of several books about the coast.

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