NOVEMBER
1 New Moon
3 Moon passes Mercury
4 Moon passes Venus
7 Moon passes Pluto
9 First Quarter
10 Moon passes Saturn
11 Moon passes Neptune
14 Moon at perigee (223,762 miles from Earth)
15 Full Moon – “Beaver Moon” – passes Uranus
17 Moon passes Jupiter
20 Moon passes Mars
22 Last Quarter
26 Moon at apogee (251,850 miles from Earth)
NEWS OF THE WORLD
Mercury (mag.-0.3) graces our evening sky this month, reaching greatest elongation (23° east of the Sun) November 16 and then dimming as it heads back toward the sunset. But Venus (mag.-4) predominates, moving from Ophiuchus into Sagittarius, climbing higher as the month goes on, and brightening to mag. -4.1. Our brightest planet passes M8 (the Lagoon Nebula) on November 11, and M22 on the 18th.
Next comes Saturn (mag.0.8) in high in the southern sky in Aquarius. Its rings are tilted 5.2° toward us, making them easier to see with a telescope, as is its largest moon Titan (mag.8.5).
Close by is another telescopic object, Neptune (mag.7.7), in Pisces. You can find it near the “circlet” asterism at the constellation’s western end. The other gas giant, Uranus (mag.5.6) is visible all night, reaching opposition November 16. It can be found with binoculars in Taurus, to the right of the Pleiades star cluster.
Brightest of all (after Venus) is Jupiter (mag.-2.8), also in Taurus as it heads for its early December opposition. Our largest planet rises around 8 PM November 1, and is up by 5 PM at month’s end.
Finally, Mars (mag.0.1, brightening to -0.5) rises around 11 PM November 30, and by 8:45 by the 30th. The red planet moves through Cancer, passing M44 (the Beehive Cluster) around mid-month.
The Leonid Meteor Shower runs from November 6-30, peaking on the morning of November 17 with about 10 meteors per hour. The radiant is just above Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo, which rises around 3 AM. Unfortunately, a nearly-full Moon will wash many out this year, so Astronomy magazine recommends observing during the week prior to the 17th, starting on the 10th when the waxing Moon will set around midnight.