Skylights: November 2022

November brings some notable seasonal changes. The nocturnal sounds of the warmer months are silenced by the chilly night air, and the smells of autumn are rapidly fading into the freezing night.

 Arcturus, which has been part of our evening sky since January, finally dips into the northwestern twilight in early November.

The swan, Cygnus, is on its slow, annual migration towards the northwestern horizon. Sagittarius settles into the southwestern horizon, taking with it the core of the Milky Way.

Fomalhaut, the brightest star in Piscis Austrinus, the southern fish, is prominently positioned low in the south during early evenings in November; this is the best time for viewing the Great Andromeda Galaxy and the myriad of objects residing in the section of the Milky Way within Cassiopeia and Cepheus, which pass high overhead in the evening.

Perhaps most notably, although not a natural phenomenon, Daylight Time ends on November 6, which sets our clocks back an hour, to 5 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC-05:00). This theoretically gives us an additional hour of nighttime viewing, but makes the apparent sunrise an hour earlier.

The latest sunrise occurs at 7:23 Eastern Daylight Time on the 5th.The Sun travels through Libra from the final day of October through November 23rd. It then spends less than a week moving through northern Scorpius, before entering Ophiuchus before sunrise on the 30th.

The Sun passes less than 0.1° south of Zubenelgenubi on November 4, and between Acrab and Dschubba, in Scorpius, on the 25th.

The Moon is at first quarter phase early on the 1st, and it already appears gibbous when it rises at 2:43pm. At dusk, you will find Saturn 4.7° north of the Moon. If you have exceptionally clear sky conditions during the afternoon, this would make for a good opportunity to locate Saturn during daylight. An accurately polar-aligned tracking mount and medium-high magnification with an orange or red filter will make this challenge worth a try.

The waxing gibbous Moon passes 2.6° southeast of Jupiter on the 4th.

On the morning of the 11th, the waning gibbous Moon passes 2.9° northwest of Mars, and on the 13th it rises just beneath and aligns with the twin stars Pollux and Castor in Gemini. Late on the 14th and through the night, the waning gibbous Moon lies just over 3° from the large open star cluster M44, the Beehive, in Cancer. 

Last quarter occurs on the 16th, and just before midnight, the Moon rises 4.5° from Regulus, in Leo. On the 21st, the waning crescent appears near Spica, in Virgo, on the 21st.

The 27-day, 8% illuminated waning crescent Moon is 3.8° northeast of Spica on the 21st. New Moon occurs on the 23rd, beginning Lunation 1236.

On the evening of the 26th, the 3-day waxing crescent Moon passes within 1 arcminute of 3rd magnitude star tau Sagitarii just before moonset.

The Moon is first quarter for a second time on the 30th, and during the evening hours it passes just a few arcminutes north of asteroid 3 Juno.

The Full Beaver Moon coincides with a total lunar eclipse on the morning of November 8. For observers in New England, the Moon sets during totality.

Uranus is 2° to the east of the Moon at the time total eclipse begins. Our seventh planet is at opposition the following day, the 9th, and thus is at its closest and brightest for the year. At a distance of 18.69 AU from Earth, Uranus shines as bright as magnitude 5.7 and will show a tiny blue-green globe nearly 3.8 arcseconds in diameter. The third week of the month will be the best time to attempt to see Uranus without any optical aid in a dark sky.

Mercury and Venus both return to the evening sky in November, but they will remain low and challenging to observe.

Mercury is at superior conjunction on the 8th. This particular superior conjunction is notable in that it takes Mercury directly behind the Sun from our perspective. This is not a particularly rare event, as it previously occurred on May 5, 2020, and the next one occurs on May 14, 2026. 

Mercury remains too low in twilight to be easily observed through November. It may be found telescopically, however, using the much brighter Venus as a guide. The best time to try this begins on November 29, when Mercury will be 3° to the left of Venus. Begin observing no earlier than 20 minutes after sunset, and find a clear horizon free of obstruction, as the two planets will be just 1.5° in elevation, and will set only about 30 minutes after sunset.

Saturn, in Capricornus, reaches its eastern quadrature on the 11th, which is the point 90° of elongation from the Sun in our sky. It is also the point, as seen from Saturn, where Earth is at its greatest elongation from the Sun (5.8°). This maximum elongation also means that the shadow of Saturn on its rings is at its maximum offset as seen from Earth, giving Saturn a distinct three-dimensional view through a telescope. 

The 4-day waxing crescent Moon appears 6° below Saturn on the 28th.

Neptune is only about 6° west-southwest of Jupiter all month.

Jupiter, in Pisces, remains our night sky’s most prominent star-like object. Sitting high in the southeast at evening twilight, Jupiter reaches its stationary point on the 24th, and resumes its eastward, prograde motion thereafter.

At the beginning of November, Jupiter remains in the sky until 4:00am, but by month’s end, it departs by 1:00am.

Mars is the planet to watch in November. Moving westward through eastern Taurus and shining as bright as Sirius,  the Red Planet is at its closest to Earth on the 30th, at a distance of 0.544 AU. Its disk now appears nearly full, and its 16 arcsecond size appears larger than the globe of Saturn. Surface details on the planet should be clearly visible through larger telescopes. It is notable that Mars’s rotation is 40 minutes slower than Earth’s, so the same features will be visible 40 minutes later each successive night it is observed.

November is a busy month for meteors, although none of the active showers are predicted to produce a high rate of meteors. The most-recognized shower, the Leonids, is known for its 33-year outbursts associated with Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, but is currently 11 years from its next predicted one, and is now just a modest shower, producing about 15-20 meteors per hour at its peak on November 17-18, when the waning crescent Moon shouldn’t present too much interference.

If you do see meteors in November, it is likely that they are from the Taurid streams. The Taurids are lesser known, and usually produce lower hourly rates than the Leonids, but they have a broad period of activity extending from October through the end of November, and often produce brighter, slower-moving meteors with persistent trails, and even an occasional fireball.