November Astronomical Highlights

Before I preview some of November’s sky events, it is important to remember that at 2:00 am on Sunday, November 1, we revert to Eastern Standard Time. The mnemonic is “Spring forward, Fall back” (or some variation thereof). So before bedtime it’s best to set your clocks back one hour. Don’t put it off until you wake up, because you’ll likely forget and be an hour early for any Sunday morning activity.

While it will be several months before we will be able to observe Mars at a decent hour of the night, that doesn’t mean it can’t be observed now. Mars spends November in the constellation Cancer and rises around midnight. Give it an hour or so to move higher into the sky and Mars will be easily visible as a red star-like object in the eastern sky. If you need another clue to its location, during the first few days of November, Mars will be within the Beehive Cluster of stars. A dark sky and a pair of binoculars will reveal a beautiful image.

Since the distance between the Earth and Mars closes during the next couple of months, Mars’ brightness will increase as will its image size when viewed through a telescope. Unfortunately this close approach to us will not be one of the red planet’s best. It will only come as close as 61,721,726 miles on January 27, 2010, Regardless, I will present a Mars observing guide in a future column so you can try your hand, eh, “eye,” at coaxing some detail out the somewhat tiny telescopic image.

The first principal meteor shower of November is the Taurids. This shooting star display spans about a week (Nov. 5-12), with the peak of activity on or about the 5th. The waning gibbous to last quarter Moon will blot out all but the brightest of these meteors. However, the slow and yellow Taurids are also known for producing fireballs that frequently fragment into multiple meteors! To help you see the most meteors possible, try to block the Moon from view. The Taurids radiate out of the sky in the constellation Taurus the Bull (visible soon after sunset in the eastern sky), not too far from the Pleiades star cluster.

The second meteor shower of the month is the famous Leonids. Remember the incredible display back in 2001 when hundreds of meteors were blazing across the sky before dawn? While we can’t expect to see a repeat of that performance for another two plus decades, several researchers believe we may experience an enhanced peak this year.

Based upon an analysis of the streams of debris left behind by Comet 55P/Temple-Tuttle in 1466 and 1533, the potential is for enhanced numbers of a couple of hundred meteors per hour on the morning of the 17th from around 1:30 am to dawn’s early light. This enhanced activity may only last an hour or so, with Far East locations favored.

However, the new Moon will not interfere at all with observing, and should the skies be clear locally, I for one would hate to miss the opportunity to see a minor “storm” of meteors should any variation of the predictions come true.

Regardless, the Leonids’ normal peak, with 10 to 15 meteors per hour, will most likely occur the following morning of the 18th from midnight to dawn,

The Leonids are bright and fast shooting stars, hitting the Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrating at 44 miles per second. Most of the Leonids appear to be green or blue in color, are noted for producing fireballs, and about half of them leave trains of dust which can persist for minutes. These meteors radiate from the constellation Leo, which can be seen well above the eastern horizon around 3:00 am on the above dates. Find reddish Mars and Leo (part of it looks like a backwards question mark) will be below it and to the left.

Good luck with all your sky watching adventures.

Keep your eyes to the skies.