Skylights: November 2021

The annual switch back to standard time occurs on Sunday, the 7th, shifting an hour of daylight back to the morning hours. This favors evening observing hours, as we can now begin an hour earlier than during daylight time. Note that times given in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) are now five hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time. The daylight shift puts November’s evening sky on display an hour earlier, and with it, some notable seasonal transitions.

While the sounds and smells of summer may have long passed, the sky above is reminding us of those warm, hazy nights. The three stars of the Summer Triangle, Vega, Deneb, and Altair remain prominently in view for a few hours after sunset. And if you start observing during twilight, and have a clear northwestern horizon, you may even see our beacon star of spring, Arcturus, making its final farewell during the first half of November. A fun challenge would be to see how late into November you can still see it above the horizon in the evening.

A little later on, say, around 7:30pm local time, look to the north for the Big Dipper. It now sits low on the horizon, and the two pointer stars, Merak and Dubhe, both reach their lower culmination around this time. These are the two stars that guide us to north all night and all year long, but they also point us to other notable places in the sky. Using the pointers, draw the usual line to Polaris, the North Star, and continue going along this line. When you’re looking directly overhead at the zenith, turn around and face south. From the zenith, continue the line downward as it crosses Markab and Scheat, the western edge of the Great Square of Pegasus. Scheat, the northernmost star, is a class M2.5 giant about 200 light years from us, and appears distinctly orange through binoculars or a telescope. Markab is a class B9 dwarf about 140 light years away.

Now, continue the line southward. Keep going until you’re just about 20° above the horizon. You will finally arrive at Fomalhaut, a class A3 star about 25 light years away. Fomalhaut sits alone in this region of sky, the southernmost of all first magnitude stars visible from our latitude, and defines the autumn evening sky. Due to its southerly declination, it is only above the horizon for a few hours, and once it begins to leave our sky, the winter constellations will be well on their way in.

The line we just defined, from Merak and Dubhe, through Polaris, the Great Square, and Fomalhaut, roughly defines the meridian marking the 23rd hour of right ascension. The next time you’re looking at the pointer stars, you can now also note the location of the Great Square, as well as Fomalhaut, even when they are below the horizon.

We often point out where objects in the night sky are with respect to our familiar stars and patterns, but don’t often think about where the Sun is located, since when the Sun is visible, nothing else (except the Moon) is, but if you’re curious, the Sun passes Zubenelgenubi in Libra on the 7th. Also, beginning on November 29th, and extending through December 17, the Sun traverses Ophiuchus.

The Moon is new early on the 5th, and on the 7th, the waxing crescent appears near Venus, which is still close to its greatest elongation from the Sun. Look for the waxing crescent Moon near Saturn on the 10th, and again near Jupiter on the 11th, when it will be just past its first quarter phase. Two nights later, on the 13th, the waxing gibbous Moon points the way to Neptune. If you haven't seen Neptune yet, let the Moon be your guide, as it will be just 4° southeast of our outermost planet. The brightness of the Moon will make it a bit challenging to locate 8th magnitude Neptune, but a small telescope with about 20x magnification will help.

The highlight of the month is a near total lunar eclipse that occurs during the full Beaver Moon on the morning of the 19th. The Moon passes through Earth’s shadow from 1:02am to 7:03am EST, with maximum eclipse occurring at 4:03am. The Moon will be located 6° from the Pleiades in Taurus, high in the west at the time of maximum eclipse. No special equipment is needed to view the lunar eclipse, but binoculars or a small, wide-field telescope enhances the view. See Francine Jackson’s article to learn more about lunar eclipses.

As the Moon goes through its waning phases, watch it pass some notable sights. On the morning after the eclipse, the 20th, the Moon passes near the Hyades cluster in Taurus. Early in the morning of the 22nd, the waning gibbous Moon passes just a little over 1° from the open star cluster M35 in Gemini. At about 2:00am on the 24th, the waning gibbous Moon aligns with Pollux and Castor in Gemini, and the next night it passes 2.5° from M44, the Beehive Cluster, in Cancer. A little before 11:00pm on the 26th, the last quarter Moon rises 4.5° to the left of Regulus in Leo.

Mercury remains in a favorable viewing position through the first week of November. On the morning of the 3rd, watch for the waxing crescent Moon just 4° above Mercury, and the bright star Spica, in Virgo, 4.5° to Mercury's right. Mercury passes superior conjunction on the 29th.

Venus continues to meander eastward near the most southerly region of the ecliptic plane through Sagittarius, discernibly closing its distance to Saturn. 

Mars returns to the morning sky in November, and if you’re watching Mercury, you’ll see the 2 planets draw close to each other. Mars is 2.25° below Mercury on the 8th, and by the 11th, the two planets trade places, with Mars becoming higher as Mercury moves back towards the horizon.

Dwarf planet Ceres, moving retrograde through the Hyades cluster in Taurus, is within a degree of Aldebaran for the first half of November. The magnitude difference between Aldebaran and the dwarf planet may require a bit more than binoculars to see easily. A small telescope with a magnification of about 25x should be adequate. As the distance between Ceres and Aldebaran widens, binoculars will be sufficient, but wait until the last week of the month, when the Moon will be out of the way.

Jupiter and Saturn, both moving prograde through Capricornus, are best seen early in the evening, when they are still relatively high in the south. Jupiter reaches eastern quadrature (90 elongation from the Sun) on the 16th, and by the end of November, both gas giants will have left our sky by about 10:00pm.

Uranus reaches opposition on the 4th. At a distance of 18.74 AU, it is now at its closest and brightest that it will be all year. When the bright Moon doesn’t interfere,head to a dark site and see if you can spot its distant glow without any optical aid, or just use your binoculars to locate it between Aries and Cetus. A chart to locate Uranus can be found in the October issue.

Both Neptune and asteroid 2 Pallas are located in Aquarius, and are in good position for observing during early evenings, but as they both require binoculars to observe, it is best to observe them on nights  without bright moonlight.

And finally, there are two notable meteor showers occurring in November. The first, which offers a substantially long window to observe them, is the Taurids, which is actually two showers, the Northern Taurids (peaks November 4-5) and Southern Taurids (peaks November 11-12). This low-rate shower whose meteors originate from Taurus, which is visible all night, lasts for several weeks. This makes observing the Taurids very forgiving to adverse weather conditions if you happen to miss the peak nights. The second is the annual Leonids, which peak on the night of the 16th-17th and originate near the sickle asterism in Leo. This part of the sky isn’t visible until around 11:00pm, and this year, a bright gibbous Moon means less than ideal viewing conditions.