The Night Sky in November 2005
Looking at the night sky with the naked eye or using a telescope is fascinating and each month these notes keep you up-to-date with unfolding events.Maps of the current night sky can be seen by clicking HERE
Phases of the Moon
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| New Moon Wednesday 2 |
First quarter Wednesday 9 |
Full Moon Wednesday 16 |
Last quarter Thursday 24 |
Click HERE to see the phase of the Moon on each day of the month.
Monthly Highlights
Now that the clocks have gone back, it appears to get dark not long after we get home from school. Because the Sun sets in the west, and because it is closer to the equator, Penzance in Cornwall is the city with the latest sunset - 4:57 pm on 1 Nov. But spare a thought for poor old Lerwick in the Shetland Isles, where the Sun goes down nearly an hour earlier (4:07 pm). Indeed, come the shortest day (Dec 22), the hardy Shetlanders will be walking home from school in the dark, as the Sun will have slipped over the horizon by 3:15 pm. Why not explore what time the Sun rises or sets in your area using our special sunrise/sunset calculator.
November 7th - Mars at opposition
© Stellarium
The night sky this month is pretty much dominated by the majesty of the planet Mars, which will appear clearer now than at any point over the next 13 years. On 7th November at 8 am, Mars reaches a point in its orbit known as opposition. This is where the Earth, Sun and Mars all line up, such that Mars and the Sun will be on opposite sides of the Earth to each other. Because the Sun is above the southern horizon around midday, this means that Mars should appear to the south around midnight when we are facing the other way.
The upshot is that now is an excellent time to order images of Mars with the Liverpool telescope through Go Observing. If the weather is clear, you should be able to download an image of Mars within a few days that actually shows surface features and maybe even hints of a Martian polar region. It's such a good time for "Mars Spotting" that we (the NSO) are even trying to get our own colour picture of Mars, which we hope to publish within the next couple of weeks.
If you want to find Mars without a telescope, you can use the above sky map, although you will need a clear night and a dark garden or field to look from. The orangey-red planet looks like a steady star, but will appear much steadier (i.e. less twinkly) than stars around it. It's fairly close to the Pleiades star cluster and the constellation of Taurus, which is November's constellation of the month - see below.
The Planets
Click HERE and start the Electric Orrery to see where all the planets are today in relation to each other.
MercuryMercury reaches maximum separation from the Sun on the 2nd November, which will therefore be the best time to see it. Try looking for a faint but steady star-like object toward the south-west shortly after sunset. Venus will also be there shining very brightly, but you are looking for the next brightest object and you may need a pair of binoculars to see it more clearly. If you live in a town it may be below the level of the houses, so you may need to find a nearby hill to stand on. As the month moves on, Mercury will start to pass in front of the Sun and will therefore be lost in the solar glare. It will reach inferior conjunction (i.e. between us and the Sun) on the 24th November.
VenusVenus remains clearly visible toward the south-southwest as a brilliant evening star and will reach maximum elongation (separation from the Sun) on the 3rd November. After that it will start to move around in front of the Sun. Although it will be moving closer to us, it will slowly start to reduce in brightness. This is because we will start to see more of the dark side of Venus as it overtakes us on the inside. In the same way as we see phases of the Moon, we see phases of Venus. At present that phase is "Last Quarter", but come the middle of January this will become a "New Venus" and we will not see anything. Why not try confirming this using the electric orrery.
MarsMars is close to its peak in terms of visibilty, and will be overtaking us in the first week of November. It remains a very prominant object throughout the month, rising toward the east-northeast around 30 minutes after sunset. This moves earlier into the evening as the month progresses and we continue to overtake Mars on the inside. If you get up early on the 15th November, say around 5:30 am, you should be able to see the Moon within a hair's breadth of Mars in the southwest for around an hour before the Sun comes up. Now is by far the best time to look at Mars using the Liverpool telescope, as you should be able to make out some surface features.
JupiterJupiter reached superior conjunction (opposite side of the Sun to the Earth) on October 22nd. As such, it cannot be seen at the start of the month, but by the middle of the month will be visible as a morning object in the pre-dawn sky. By month's end, Jupiter will rise around 2 hours before the Sun, toward the east-southeast. Sadly, it will still not make a good target for the Liverpool telescope until the beginning of next year.
SaturnSaturn will be a much better prospect for viewing. Toward the middle of this month, Saturn will rise at around 9:30 pm in the east-northeast. Over the next two months, this will move earlier into the evening as we slowly start to catch up because of our inside orbit. Currently passing through the constellation of Cancer, Saturn is once again a reasonable target to observe with the Liverpool Telescope using Go Observing. However, the end of January 2006 should provide the best opportunity to observe this gas-giant planet, and with Saturn's rings remaining open throughout the period, any images should be quite stunning.
Constellation of the monthEach month, new constellations are highlighted for you to identify in the night sky.This month, we are going to look for the constellation of Taurus, the bull. A very prominent winter constellation, Taurus can be found above and to the right of the famous Orion constellation, which was highlighted in last December's monthly article. Taurus can be found by first locating the bright red-giant star, Aldebaran, which is one of the brightest stars in the night sky and sits right in the middle of the constellation, thereby making the bull's eye. The horns of the Taurian "bull" stretch off toward the eastern horizon.
 November Night Sky The ancient name of Aldebaran is derived from Arabic and means "the Follower"; so called because the star seems to follow the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters star cluster, across the sky. If you look at the Pleiades with the naked eye on a clear night, you should see six, maybe seven stars, all clustered or grouped together - hence the name seven sisters. However, if you use binoculars or a small telescope you will soon realise that there are many hundereds of stars, as in the picture below.
 The Seven Sisters Stars found in clusters like this are actually very young stars, which have all formed close together from the same cloud of gas and dust. Over time the stars will gradually drift away from each other, but when young they remain close. In fact the Pleiades are around 100 million years old, which may seem like a very long time to us, but if we think in terms of human lifetimes, these stars are less than a year old and therefore still crawling around in nappies. Mythology: Taurus For over 5,000 years Taurus has been associated with a bull. Bulls have been worshipped since ancient times as symbols of strength and fertility. The ancient Egyptians worshipped Apis, the bull of Memphis, whilst the Israelites worshipped the Golden Calf. The Greeks, however, saw the constellation as Zeus (the God of Gods) disguised as a bull. Legend tells that Zeus fell in love with the beautiful Europa, daughter of Agenor, the King of Phoenicia. One day while playing at the waters edge, Europa's attention was caught by a magnificent white bull, Zeus in animal form. The bull knelt before her as she approached. She then climbed onto its back and placed flowers around its horns. Leaping to its feet, the bull took off into the sea and swam to Crete, where Zeus made Europa his mistress.
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