Welcome to the November night sky. This is the month in the northern hemisphere when we begin to enter the winter night sky.
After night falls, over in the east, we see rising the constellation of Orion the Hunter. This area of night sky contains six bright stars that are Betelgeuse and Rigel in Orion, Aldebaran in Taurus, Capella in Auriga and Caster and Pollux in Gemini. These stars form part of the winter Milky-Way.
Before midnight in November, we also see rising over in the east-southeast the brightest star in the night sky that is Sirius in the constellation of Canis Major, the “Big Dog”.
The planets are starting to become more visible this month starting with Mars rising at midnight at the beginning of November in the constellation of Gemini.
Saturn is past opposition in November but is still well visible high in the southwest and the first quarter Moon is close to Saturn on the 10th.
The gas giant planet Jupiter is at opposition next month and this month it can be seen rising over in the east as darkness falls by the middle of the month.
Jupiter is close to the nearly full Moon on the 16th and the barely visible gas planet Uranus is close to the star cluster of the Pleiades this month, but you would need binoculars to see its small greenish disc.
The Moon will be close to Mars on the 20th and, over in the west, after sunset, the planet Venus is getting higher, and it is now setting three hours after sunset at the end of November.
This month has three meteor showers of note, the first is the Northern Taurids on the night of the 8th and on the morning of the 9th. We then have the Leonids on the night of the 17th. This shower is from the tail of Comet Tempel-Tuttle. Every 33 years the shower has an outburst, but this year is expected to be normal. The last is the Andromedids on the 25th from the tail of Comet Biela.
The Moon is new on the 1st, first quarter on the 9th, full on the 15th and last quarter on November 23.
By Clive Jackson
|| features@algarveresident.com
Clive Jackson is the director of the Camera Obscura – Tavira EYE attraction, located near the Castle of Tavira. Specialising in education and public outreach.
281 322 527 | info@torredetavira.com www.torredetavira.com
To see the November Sky Map, click on the pdf link below
