This Week's Sky at a Glance

RikerChick · July 7, 2008

by Alan M. MacRobert

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Some daily events in the changing sky for November 7 – November 15.

Friday, November 7

Using binoculars, can you still pick out the star pattern of the Sagittarius Teapot between Jupiter and Venus, as shown here? The Teapot is 13° wide. That's about twice as wide as a typical 7× or 8× binocular's field of view.

Saturday, November 8

The bright eclipsing variable star Algol should be in one of its periodic dimmings, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple hours centered on 11:07 p.m. EST. Algol takes several additional hours to fade and to rebrighten. (For a comparison-star chart and all times of Algol's minima this month, good worldwide, see the November Sky & Telescope, page 69.)

Sunday, November 9

Vesta, the brightest asteroid, is just past opposition and still magnitude 6.6. It's easily visible with binoculars near the head of Cetus. Use the finder chart in the November Sky & Telescope, page 67, or online.

Monday, November 10

The outstretched hand of the Andromeda constellation figure has a bunch of telescopic trophies that you may not know. See Sue French's "Deep-Sky Wonders" article and sky map in the November Sky & Telescope, page 71.

Tuesday, November 11

The Taurid meteor shower, weak but long-lasting, remains active at least through mid-November. Actually, "weak" may not be the right word. Taurids are indeed few, but some of them are spectacularly bright. Moreover, this is a Taurid swarm year, when the shower is predicted to be above average. So watch for fireballs!

Update: The Taurid fireballs are indeed happening; see news and photo gallery at Spaceweather.com.

Unlike many meteor showers, the Taurids are active in the evening as well as the morning hours. Compared to most meteors, Taurids move relatively slowly in the sky, and they often have a greenish tint. They're fragments of Periodic Comet 2P/Encke.

Algol should be at minimum brightness for a couple hours centered on 7:56 p.m. EST.

Wednesday, November 12

Full Moon tonight (exact at 1:17 a.m. Thursday morning EST).

Thursday, November 13

November is the time of year when the Big Dipper rest horizontally at its lowest in the north-northwest after dusk. Canadians and Europeans should have no trouble seeing it, given an open view in that direction, but if you're as far south as Miami, it'll be below your horizon!

Getting closer. . . .

Sky & Telescope diagramFriday, November 14

The brightest star shining high in the west after dark is Vega. Look even higher above it for Deneb. Look farther to Vega's left for Altair. These three stars form the big Summer Triangle.

Saturday, November 15

The Moon is up in the east after dinnertime. Sparkling well to its upper left is Capella. A little less far to the Moon's right is Aldebaran. Above Aldebaran, can you see the Pleiades through the moonlight?

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This Week's Planet Roundup

Two planetary imagers a continent apart took these extraordinary infrared views of Mercury's surface markings within 40 minutes of each other on October 27th (through broad daylight). Many of the subtle features are the same in both views — proving that they are real markings on the planet, rather than processing-exaggerated noise or flaws. The small white spot labeled "New ray crater" lies in an area not imaged by the Messenger spacecraft.

Mercury (magnitude –0.9) is disappearing down into the sunrise. You can scan for it, preferably with binoculars, just above the east-southeast horizon about 30 minutes before sunrise, the earlier in the week the better.

Venus and Jupiter (magnitudes –4.0 and –2.1, respectively) shine brightly in evening twilight, as shown in the sky scenes above. Jupiter is in the south-southwest; look for brighter Venus to Jupiter's lower right. Watch them close in on each other for the rest of November, by 1° per day. They're 24° apart on November 7th and 15° apart on the 15th. These two brightest planets are heading toward a spectacular conjunction, 2° apart, on November 30th and December 1st.

In a telescope Venus is still small (14 arcseconds wide) and gibbous (76% illuminated). Jupiter is 36&Prime wide but has a much lower surface brightness.

Mars is hidden in the glare of the Sun.

Saturn's rings were tipped only 2° to our line of sight on November 1, 2008, when Tomio Akutsu of Cebu, Philippines, took this image. Note the very prominent black shadow of the rings on the globe. South is up.

Tomio Akutsu

Saturn (magnitude +1.1, in the hind feet of Leo) rises around 2 a.m. standard time and shines high in the southeast by early dawn. Don't confuse it with Regulus 20° (two fist-widths at arm's length) to its upper right.

A telescope will show that Saturn's rings have turned nearly edge on; they're currently tilted 2° to our line of sight and closing. They'll reach a minimum of 0.8° at the end of the year, then start opening again before finally closing to edge-on next September.

Uranus and Neptune (magnitudes 5.8 and 7.9, respectively, in Aquarius and Capricornus) are in the south during early evening. Use our article and finder charts or the chart in the September Sky & Telescope, page 63.

Pluto is sinking away into the sunset.

All descriptions that relate to your horizon or zenith — including the words up, down, right, and left — are written for the world's mid-northern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on longitude (mainly Moon positions) are for North America. Eastern Standard Time (EST) equals Universal Time (known as UT, UTC, or GMT) minus 5 hours.

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