Under November Skies

Night Sky, December 2018: What You Can See This Month [Maps]

Contents:

  • This Week’s Sky at a Glance, November 16 – 24
  • Tour November's Sky: Predawn Planets - Sky & Telescope
  • This Week's Planet Roundup
  • About Kelly Beatty
  • FREE eBook:
  • A Central Illinois farmhouse under cold gray November skies in the Midwestern United States.

    • Its right-hand side points down toward the Moon. Closer to the right of the Moon is Mars, as shown here.

    1. A Central Illinois farmhouse under cold gray November skies in the Stock Photo: - Alamy;
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    3. In His Own Words: 100 Quotes from Steve Jobs;
    4. 30 Minuten Burn-out (German Edition)?
    5. Eleanore Wont Share (Little Boost).
    6. Tour November’s Sky: Predawn Planets.

    As night grows darker, look to its right by about three fists at arm's length for the frosty little Pleiades cluster. It's the size of your fingertip at arm's length. Orange Aldebaran climbs up below the Pleiades. By about 8 p. Although Juno was one of the first four asteroids discovered, it ranks 10th in size. These are the sizes the first four would be if they were perfectly spherical. That means it's now as bright as magnitude 7. Juno is substantially smaller than 1 Ceres, 2 Pallas, or 4 Vesta; only by a stroke of luck was it the third asteroid discovered.

    Juno is in northern Eridanus south of Taurus, in high view by late evening. And the Pointers of the Big Dipper stand upright low due north, straight below Polaris.

    This Week’s Sky at a Glance, November 16 – 24

    A surprising result of this: The Sun actually sets a trace earlier on Thanksgiving than on Christmas — even though Christmas is around solstice time! This offset from the solstice date is balanced out by the opposite happening at sunrise: Blame the tilt of Earth's axis and the eccentricity of Earth's orbit.

    Every November, the Moon is close to full when it makes its monthly pass through Taurus.

    The Moon lights the eastern sky this evening, with the Pleiades faintly visible to its upper left and orange Aldebaran to its lower left as shown here. Watch the Moon draw farther away from Aldebaran through the hours of the night.

    Tour November's Sky: Predawn Planets - Sky & Telescope

    It's now below the horns of Taurus: Want to become a better astronomer? Learn your way around the constellations!

    They're the key to locating everything fainter and deeper to hunt with binoculars or a telescope. This is an outdoor nature hobby.

    This Week's Planet Roundup

    The Pocket Sky Atlas plots 30, stars to magnitude 7. Shown above is the Jumbo Edition for easier reading in the night. Once you get a telescope, to put it to good use you'll need a detailed, large-scale sky atlas set of charts. The basic standard is the Pocket Sky Atlas in either the original or Jumbo Edition , which shows stars to magnitude 7. Next up is the larger and deeper Sky Atlas The next up, once you know your way around, are the even larger Interstellarum atlas stars to magnitude 9.

    And read how to use sky charts with a telescope. You'll also want a good deep-sky guidebook, such as Sue French's Deep-Sky Wonders collection which includes its own charts , Sky Atlas Can a computerized telescope replace charts? Not for beginners, I don't think, and not on mounts and tripods that are less than top-quality mechanically meaning heavy and expensive.

    About Kelly Beatty

    And as Terence Dickinson and Alan Dyer say in their Backyard Astronomer's Guide , "A full appreciation of the universe cannot come without developing the skills to find things in the sky and understanding how the sky works. This knowledge comes only by spending time under the stars with star maps in hand. Venus and Spica still appear close together in the southeast in early dawn.

    FREE eBook:

    Finder charts for Uranus and Neptune. The following morning, the moon's eastward orbital motion will carry it to Venus' lower left. Although Juno was one of the first four asteroids discovered, it ranks 10th in size. On November 13, Venus and the dim globular cluster NGC will appear close together when seen through a telescope, although the brightness of Venus may make it difficult to see the cluster. Also at mid-month, Jupiter will cross from Scorpius into Ophiuchus.

    Mars on November 7th, imaged by Damian Peach with the 1-meter Chilescope in good seeing. Even though Mars had shrunk to The South Polar Cap is dwindling.

    A Central Illinois farmhouse under cold gray November skies in the Midwestern United States.

    The nearly horizontal dark band consists of Mare Sirenum left and Mare Cimmerium right. Note the two straight, dark prongs of Gomer Sinus extending down from Cimmerium. The left one ends with Gale crater, home of the Curiosity rover. The diagonal streaking everywhere is an image-processing artifact. It rises as an eerie "UFO" above the eastern horizon almost two hours before first light.

    Similar stock images

    As Venus sinks lower down and Jupiter rises up out of the twilight glow, the gap between them shrinks. Listen to the podcast to find out! The evening sky features Pegasus, the Flying Horse, which is almost overhead around 8 p. Skywatchers the world over know this as the Great Square, representing the chest of Pegasus. Look below it and to its right for compact groups of stars that mark three different constellations. The podcast will tell you!

    There's much more to see in the nighttime sky. To learn more, listen to or download our monthly astronomy podcast below. It provides a 7-minute-long tour of the stars and planets that you'll see this month. Play in new window Download.

    Panis Angelicus

    If you start a line from the lower star, run it past the upper star, and extend it northward, it will pass by Polaris. More lovely planets to look at, just as the Eastern dawn starts to kick in. And crash heavily into bed for a few scant hours.