November Sky Notes

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 suppose, this year, someone will associate this shower with Comet 31/ATLAS, even though it will be speeding away from the Earth by then.

The Taurids occur from 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 when the radiant point is lower in the sky). 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.  

Once a stable orbit has been reached, Europa Clipper will begin its scientific investigations of the icy moon. It is expected to survive and return information for about three years.

The Torbay Astronomical Society is continuing with its 70th Anniversary celebrations. We are looking forward to our next highlight in December when society Patron, Professor Chris Lintott, presenter of BBC’s “Sky at Night” programme and Gresham Professor of Astronomy, returns to his home town to give a PUBLIC LECTURE at Torquay Boys’ Grammar School, where he was a pupil. The talk will be entitled “100 Years of Discovery: Astronomy in 1955 and 2055”. Tickets for this event are available at £5 per adult and just £1 per student (under 18) and can be purchased by clicking here.

Sky Notes

Sky Schedule

Please note all times given in this article are in GMT.

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:  Both of the Inner Planes rise around 6am and are soon lost in the glare as the Sun rises.. 

Mars:  Mars is also too close to the Sun to be seen this month.

Jupiter:  The largest planet rises around 8.00pm and is visible throughout the rest of the night. It is seen against the background stars of Gemini.  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 and smartphone 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 are now edge-on to us but can still be seen in a medium-sized telescope. Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, can be seen near the planet with a good pair of binoculars or a small telescope but, whilst the rings are edge-on it is worth looking out for 3 or 4 other moons, visible because of the lack of glare from the rings.  Saturn sets around 2am.

Uranus and Neptune: Uranus is visible just about all night long throughout November and is seen against the background stars of Taurus   It reaches opposition (closes to the Earth and due South) on 21st. 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), a little way from Saturn. At magnitude 7.7 it will require large binoculars or a moderate 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 

Comets:  Comet Tsuchinshan/ATLAS can be seen in the West after Sunset. The comet appears to travel from Ophiuchus, through Serpens to Aquila as the month progresses.

Comet Lemmon can be seen low in the Western to South-western sky after sunset (best around 7-8pm) as it makes its closest approach to the Earth on 8th. Conveniently it glides past the bright star Arcturus which can be found by extending the curve i=of the handle of the Plough to “arc to Arcturus”. The comet remains visible throughout the month.

Moon: The Full Moon occurs on November 5th with Last Quarter on November 12th . New Moon then follows on 20th and First Quarter is on 28th.