Short answer: two planets, not five. This October, only Jupiter and Mars are up before sunrise. Both are easy to see with no equipment, and the gap between them shrinks every morning.

Quick answer

Quick answer table: Jupiter and Mars before sunrise, best time 1 to 2 hours before sunrise, look east to southeast
Credit: Solar System Explorers

Reality check

You may see headlines about a “parade of morning planets”. Not in October. Venus only returns to the morning sky on Nov 3, and Mercury on Nov 13. Saturn is an evening planet right now. So this guide covers what is really there: Jupiter and Mars.

How to find them

Go outside 1 to 2 hours before sunrise and face east to southeast. In the Southern Hemisphere, look east to northeast, and expect the planets to sit a little lower.

Jupiter is the easy one. It is the brightest star-like light in that part of the sky, steady and white. It sits in the constellation Leo, about 7.6° (a bit less than a fist) to the upper right of the star Regulus.

Mars is much dimmer and looks orange. It is in Cancer, to the upper right of Jupiter. If you have binoculars, look just above Mars for the fuzzy Beehive Cluster. Mars passed close to it around Oct 10 to 12, and is about 4.4° from it on Oct 19.

Sky chart showing Jupiter, Mars, Regulus and the Beehive Cluster
Where to look: Mars upper right of Jupiter, Regulus lower left • Credit: Stellarium

When to look, by city

The table below shows when Jupiter rises on Oct 20 and a good time to start looking. All times are local and approximate.

Table of Jupiter rise times and best viewing times on Oct 20 for New York, Los Angeles, London, Delhi, Johannesburg and Sydney
Approximate times for Oct 20, local time. • Credit: Solar System Explorers

Times shift only a few minutes over the following weeks, so use them as a guide for the whole of late October.

The gap is closing

This is the fun part. Jupiter moves slowly, while Mars is catching up to it. Each morning they are a little closer.

Table showing the Mars-Jupiter gap shrinking from 13° on Oct 14 to 1.2° on Nov 16, with hand-size equivalents
Approximate gap between Mars and Jupiter, with a hand-size guide. • Credit: Solar System Explorers

A simple way to measure it: your fist at arm’s length is about 10°, three fingers about 5°, two fingers about 3°, and your little finger about 1°.

Hubble Space Telescope image of Jupiter with its cloud bands
Hubble view of Jupiter. This is a telescope image, not what you will see by eye. • Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), and M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley)

Around Oct 16, Mars, Jupiter and Regulus line up. By Nov 16, Mars and Jupiter are only about 1.2° apart, roughly a pinky’s width.

Diagram showing Mars getting closer to Jupiter between Oct 14 and Nov 26
How the Mars-Jupiter gap changes through the next weeks (our own calculation, approximate) • Credit: Solar System Explorers

The diagram above is our own calculation and is approximate.

The Moon

The Moon stays out of the way for most of this window. The first quarter Moon is on Oct 18 and the Hunter’s Moon (full) is on Oct 26 at 04:12 UTC. Morning skies are Moon-free from about Oct 10 to Oct 27, which makes these the best mornings to look.

What you will actually see

With your eyes alone, Jupiter is bright and obvious. Mars is a small orange dot. Binoculars show the Beehive Cluster near Mars, and a small telescope will show Jupiter’s four big moons as tiny dots in a line. Do not expect detail on Mars. It is far away right now.

Hubble Space Telescope image of Mars
Hubble view of Mars. By eye it is only a small orange dot. • Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Acknowledgment: J. Bell (Cornell U.), P. James (U. Toledo), M. Wolff (SSI), A. Lubenow (STScI), J. Neubert (MIT/Cornell)

Where to go next

Sources