Nightskywatching
by
Kamal Lodaya

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Every issue, JM has a map of some stars seen during the month, with a small explanation. Take this map to a place where the sky when you face East is dark and there are no lights in that direction. East is where the Sun rises in the morning.
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October Sky
The map shows stars seen in October. Take a few minutes to let your eyes get adjusted to the darkness. Then you will start seeing stars. Use a small torch (maybe from your phone) covered with red paper to give a soft red light to the map. Red light interferes least with your ability to see things in the dark.
In last month's Jantar Mantar you saw three bright stars high in the sky forming a right angled "summer" triangle, Vega or Abhijit, Altair or Shravana and Deneb or Hamsa, a distant star 2600 light years away which is actually a lot brighter than the other two, but appears a little dimmer because they are much closer.
Looking at last issue's star map again, make your way towards the huge rectangle of Pegasus or Mahashwa, the flying horse. The higher line of the rectangle is the nakshatra of Purva Bhadrapada, the lower line is Uttara Bhadrapada. From Purva Bhadrapada towards Shravana is the "head" of the horse.
The second map looks at the Eastern sky, at 9 pm on 1st October (full moon, Ashwina adhika purnima), or 8 pm on 16th October (new moon, Amavasya), or 7 pm on 31st October (full moon, Ashwina purnima). We have two full Moons within 31 days, since the Moon goes round the Earth in 30 days. The month of Ashwina started in September and will go on till the end of October, because the Hindu calendar has an extra month added on to Ashwina.
This is how Pegasus appears, high up in the East. Below it is a striking line of stars, Andromeda or Devayani. Parallel to it is a small line of two stars with faint star next to it. The brighter star below is the Ashwini nakshatra. The names of the purnimas and the month come from this nakshatra.
The map shows between Uttara Bhadrapada and Ashwini the faint Revati nakshatra. But you will be surprised to see a very bright "star" there! This is Mars or Mangala, which has slowly moved and risen in brightness to become brighter than every other object (except the Moon), brighter than the planets Jupiter and Saturn which can be seen low in the South. 
When I started watching the night sky in my school days, I was perplexed to find a bright "star" which was not on my map. The culprit then was also Mars.
Why did Mars become so bright over the last couple of months? Simple, it has come closer. On 6 October it is closest, 6 crore kilometres away from us. Remember that the Sun is 15 crore km away.
You can imagine how our ancestors living millenia ago were frightened by happenings such as a planet growing in brightness every night. Mars also has a distinctive reddish colour, and their stories made it an ill omen, of war or other disasters. Of course these are just stories, there is no connection between the planets in the sky and the lives of human beings. But they can give us pleasure.
If you have binoculars or a small telescope, you can see Mars is a little reddish ball. It is a planet just like Earth. Our Mangalyaan is among many spaceships there, orbiting the planet and sending us photographs.