November’24 – Rick’s Picks

All month: After favoring the morning sky for much of the year, the planets’ transformation into evening targets is nearly complete as November opens, and unmistakable by the time it ends, with only Jupiter and Mars remaining above the horizon when sunrise rolls around. Mercury sets an hour after the Sun from Nov 16-24 and at least 40 minutes after it the rest of the month, while progressing from a 5” gibbous disk at mag -0.3 to a larger but fainter 9” mag +1.6 crescent. Venus continues its relatively low evening apparition, consistently gibbous at mag -4.0 to -4.2 as it grows from 14” to 17” in diameter during the month. It sets nearly 2 hour after the Sun as November opens, and nearly 3 hours after it as the month ends. Saturn now rises in the afternoon, at 3:30 pm early in the month and 1:00 pm at its end, fading from mag +0.8 to +1.0 and shrinking slightly from 18” to 17½”, while its 40” wide rings tilt at a narrow 5° angle to our line of sight. Neptune follows a half hour behind Saturn, its 2” disk a dark blue mag 7.8 glow. Uranus comes up next, just before 6:30 pm on Nov 1 and by 3:30 pm on Nov 30, its 4” powder blue disk shining at mag 5.6 as it reaches opposition on Nov 16. It can be found less than 8° SW of The Pleiades (M45) all month. Jupiter rises before 8 pm as the month opens and before 5 pm as it ends, brightening from mag -2.7 to -2.8 and growing from 46” to 48” along the way. Last to rise is Mars, which breaches the horizon after 10:30 pm at the beginning of the month but before 8:30 pm at its end, brightening noticeably from mag +0.1 to -0.5 and growing from 9” to 11” as it pushes on towards opposition in January. Surface details can now be seen reasonably well with high magnification (at least 150x). For the entire final week of November, the red planet sits within 4° of the blue-white stars of The Beehive cluster (M44).
We don’t have any bright asteroids this month, but we’ll try to make up for it with the South and North Taurids, a pair of minor meteor showers composed of debris from comet 2P/Encke. These showers have two redeeming features to balance out their low production (ZHR 5-10 meteors per hour): first, they both exhibit broad peaks, producing 50% or more of their maximum rates for 15 days; second, they’re both known for extremely slow-moving (and long-lasting) meteors, including an unusually large number of bright fireballs. With the two showers peaking on Nov 5 and Nov 12, they’re active all month.
Nov 2: the shadow of Jovian moon Ganymede crosses the planet’s south polar region from 9:39 to 11:44 pm CDT tonight, followed by the moon itself from 1:06 am CDT to 2:03 am CST.
Nov 3: Daylight Savings Time ends at 2 am, making it possible to do some observing and still be in bed by a reasonable hour for a few months. As if to illustrate that point, new Moon arrived Nov 1 at 7:47 am CDT, making it an impossible catch that night or last night (when it set just 16 minutes after the Sun). Tonight it’s a more reasonable quest: at 5:12 pm CST (30 minutes after sunset), the Moon will be a narrow crescent 2.4 days old, just over 5% illuminated, 3° above the horizon, and 21° left of the spot where the Sun went down. It will have a large retinue of attendants, with tiny mag -0.3 Mercury a half-degree lower and 8° to the right of the crescent, mag -4.0 Venus blazing like a bright beacon 9° above the Moon and 9° to its left, and Antares (Alpha
[] Scorpii) appearing as a subtle ruddy dot 1½° above left of the crescent. You’ll have to be quick to catch the entire cast, since Mercury will set at 5:24 pm, followed by the Moon at 5:30. A little later, the shadow of Europa crosses the face of Jupiter from 9:30 pm to 12:02 am, followed by Europa itself from 11:08 pm to 1:39 am.
Nov 4: look west around 5:11 pm CST (a half hour after sunset) for a pretty scene, where bright Venus will be perched 12° above the horizon (mag 3.3 star Theta [] Ophiuchi almost touches its right side), with the three day old, 11% illuminated narrow crescent Moon just 4° below it and very slightly to the left.
Nov 8: The shadow of Io transits Jupiter’s disk from 7:51 to 10:03 pm CST. The little moon follows its shadow’s path from 8:34 to 10:45 pm. Meanwhile, at 9:23 pm, the first quarter Moon seems to take a small step backwards to hide mag 5.2 star Phi [] Capricorni behind its dark trailing edge.
Nov 10: keep an eye out from 7-10pm CST as Saturn performs a slow clockwise pirouette over the top of the 80% illuminated gibbous Moon. The two are separated by only a half degree during these hours, then move slowly farther apart as the night goes on.
Nov 11: for a different kind of challenge, get out your binoculars or a telescope and see if you can spot the Lagoon Nebula (M8) 1.5° directly above Venus tonight around 6 pm CST, when the planet will be 6° above the horizon. Later, Neptune does a disappearing act at 7:56 pm, slipping behind the dark upper left limb of the gibbous Moon. Start watching several minutes ahead of time to be sure you don’t miss the show.
Nov 15: the shadow of Io again marches across the face of Jove from 9:45 to 11:57 pm CST, followed by Io itself from 10:18 pm to 12:29 am. Later tonight, from 1 am to 4 am, the full Moon marches across The Pleiades (M45), occulting one after another until most of the major members have been gobbled up and escaped from the other side. You’ll almost certainly need a telescope to see any of the cluster’s stars in the bright lunar glare.
Nov 17: the Leonid meteor shower peaks after midnight tonight, but they have to compete with a 92% illuminated Moon that rises before the radiant and is still up at sunrise, so you’re likely to see only 3 or 4 meteors per hour even at a dark site. Although they remain at 50% or more of peak rates only for one night, the Leonids are active from Nov 6-30, so you might see a few of them during the month. They’re fast movers (~71 km/sec), which will make them easy to distinguish from the much slower North and South Taurids (~31 km/sec).
Nov 18: you’ll have another “two in the view” opportunity around 6 pm CST tonight, when Venus will still be nearly 8° above the horizon and globular cluster M22 will sit 1.6° above right of the planet.
Nov 19: at 8:50 pm CST, the line of four moons extending from Jupiter suddenly becomes a line of three when Europa disappears into eclipse, re-emerging from behind the big planet’s trailing edge at 12:17 am.
Nov 27: get up early today for an impressive show as mag 1 star Spica (Alpha[] Virginis) slips behind the thin bright arc of the 13% illuminated crescent Moon at 4:28 am CST, then re-emerges dramatically against the Moon’s dark leading edge at 5:37 am. As with all lunar occultations, start watching several minutes before the event to be sure you don’t miss it. For a disappearing act tonight, watch Ganymede slip into Jove’s shadow at 10:18 pm, emerging from behind the planet at 1:34 am.
Nov 28: the shadow of Europa strolls across the disk of Jupiter from 6:36 to 9:09 pm CST, followed by Europa itself from 7:36 to 9:35 pm.

Rick Gering / Octoberber 2024