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Is that a Meteor I see before me?
We are fast approaching the season of meteors. This month sees not one, not two, but three meteor showers. The last in the month, the Leonids is prone to outbursts called “meteor storms” once every 33 years, as its parent comet returns near the Sun (unfortunately this is not expected until, between 2032- 2035. The second in the month, The Northern Taurids is a shower that generally produces few but bright meteors and extends over a period of about 20 days. The first shower in the month is the most problematic of all.
The Guyfawkid meteor shower has its peak on November 5th and can produce reports of very bright, even exploding meteors. All joking aside, you would not believe how many spurious reports of unusual shooting stars are made on and around this date. And it is not just meteors.
The British UFO Society still asks its members to be especially aware of sightings of unusual phenomenon on November 5th along with November 17th (maximum of the Leonids) and August 12th (maximum of the Perseids)!
I remember, many years ago, visiting a UFOlogist with a colleague where we were shown a handbook of pictures said to be incontrovertible evidence of UFO’s. Of the ten images in the handbook, my colleague and I were immediately able to explain what eight of them were. One of the others was clearly out of focus (like most images of UFO’s even to this day and with current technology) and it took us less than two days to track down what the tenth image was. This was before the advent of the internet, and if it was so easily achievable by us then why could the UFO researchers not find it? Perhaps they simply did not want to know that there was a sensible explanation. That was certainly the impression my colleague and I got from our visit.
Sky Notes
Please note all times given in this article are in GMT so remember to add an hour to get the time in BST.
Sun: From the beginning to the end of the month the period of dark sky increases by an hour. At the beginning of the month the Sun sets before 5pm and by the end of the month by 4:15 pm after which there is the twilight period. The nights are really drawing in now and there are less than ten hours of daylight, making November a good time to observe fainter deep sky objects such as M42, The Great Orion Nebula, which is actually visible to the naked eye from a dark site. This cloud of gas is a star forming region in space and can be seen easily in binoculars or a small telescope. Find the three stars that form the asterism of The Belt of Orion and then drop vertically down from the middle star of these three. You will come to three much fainter stars forming the “sword”. The bottom one of these should seem rather fuzzy. This is the nebula, a cloud of glowing gas and not a star at all (although it contains newly formed, hot, young stars).
Mercury and Venus: Mercury is not visible this month. However Venus is a brilliant object seen in the South-East just before sunrise.
Mars: Mars is not visible this month as it lies in the same direction as the Sun, in the sky.
Jupiter: The largest planet reaches its perigee (closest point to the Earth) on 1st when it will be less than four Astronomical Units from the Earth (an Astronomical Unit is the average distance from the Earth to the Sun – 93 000 000 miles) Jupiter rises in the East shortly after 5:30pm on 3rd when it reaches opposition (opposite the Sun in the sky and due South at midnight). Jupiter is visible throughout the month and throughout most of the night. It is seen against the background stars of Aries. In the darker skies, the contrast allows the coloured bands and zones on the surface of the planet to be distinguished more easily with small telescopes, as can the Great Red Spot, a colossal hurricane, greater in diameter than the planet Earth. The Galilean moons can be seen with a good pair of binoculars or a small (bird-spotting) telescope. DSLR images of the planet will also pick up the moons. These moons orbit Jupiter such that we sometimes see them pass between the Earth and the giant planet along our line of sight. Watch out for small black dots seen against the surface of Jupiter itself; again more easily seen in the contrast with darker skies.
Saturn: The ringed planet can be found against the stars of Aquarius, in the South-Eastern sky. The rings have now opened out sufficiently to give breathtaking views, even through a small telescope. Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, can be seen near the planet with a good pair of binoculars or a small telescope. On 4th Saturn ends its retrograde motion (the apparent motion backwards – that is, in the opposite direction to normal – in the sky). This is caused by the Earth catching up with the more distant planets, rather like a sprinter on the inside track.
Uranus and Neptune: Uranus is visible all night long throughout November and is seen against the background stars of Aries and approximately halfway between Jupiter and the Pleiades star cluster. It reaches opposition on 13th and as this is also the night of the New Moon should be visible in binoculars. Look for a tiny greenish disc compared to the pinpoints which are the stars. Neptune is seen against the background stars of Pisces (below the asterism known as the Square of Pegasus) and lies roughly halfway between Jupiter and Saturn. At magnitude 7.8 it will require large binoculars or a small telescope to find it. Neptune displays a smaller and truly blue disc compared to that of Uranus although it will appear only as a bluish star to most small instruments
Meteor Shower: The Taurids occur between 20th and all the way through to 10th December. This shower seems to emanate from a point near the Pleiades. These meteors are particularly bright and are not affected by strong moonlight. In fact this shower contains large meteors that can produce fireballs – defined as bright enough to cast shadows. However, the Zenith Hourly Rate is only 12 (the ZHR is always quoted as if the radiant point was overhead, so is often greater than that actually observed). The Taurids are associated with a comet called Encke, which has one of the shortest orbital periods of any comet; just 3.3 years. The Leonid shower reaching its maximum on 17th is associated with a comet called Temple-Tuttle which has a 33-year orbit around the Sun. This is the shower which, once every 33 years, produces a meteor storm with thousands of meteors seen in a night. The last such storm was expected in 1999 but did not occur until 2001, so the next storm is expected sometime between 2032 and 2035.
Comet: Comet C/2023 H2 Lemmon reaches its maximum brightness on 10th. It should be visible in binoculars for most of the evening in the South-West.
The Third Quarter Moon occurs on November 5th with New Moon on 13th, First Quarter then follows on 20th November and Full Moon on 27th.
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