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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tGas giants Saturn (left) and Jupiter are some of the planetary highlight’s in this month’s sky. Credit: NASA\/JPL\/Space Science Institute (Saturn); Enhanced image by Kevin M. Gill (CC-BY) based on images provided courtesy of NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/SwRI\/MSSS (Jupiter)\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Early November presents Mercury and Mars in the western twilight sky, featuring a conjunction on the 12th and a close proximity to Antares before their mid-month disappearance due to solar proximity; Mercury exhibits a crescent phase telescopically.
\nSaturn is visible high in the northern sky, residing within Aquarius\/Pisces, displaying rings at a minimal 0.4\u00b0 tilt; Jupiter, entering retrograde on November 11th, becomes observable later in the night in Gemini, offering significant telescopic detail and its Galilean moons.
\nThe 9th-magnitude M77 (Squid Galaxy) in Cetus is highlighted as a Seyfert galaxy with an active nucleus, observable with modest apertures, and has recently transited the celestial equator due to precession.
\nVenus is largely unobservable from mid-southern latitudes throughout November, maintaining a low altitude near the eastern horizon at sunrise.<\/p>\n
As November begins, two of the solar system\u2019s rocky planets form a nice pair low in the western sky during twilight. They add a sparkle to our view of the constellation Scorpius the Scorpion as it sinks toward the horizon.<\/p>\n
Innermost Mercury comes into view first. It shines at magnitude \u20130.1 and appears 8\u00b0 directly below 1st-magnitude Antares on Nov. 1. The planet approaches within 4\u00b0 of the Scorpion\u2019s brightest star during the month\u2019s second week.<\/p>\n
Mercury looks even better when you view it through a telescope. As it moves closer to the Sun in advance of its Nov. 20 inferior conjunction, the inner world shows a beautiful crescent during moments of good seeing. The best viewing time comes around the 12th, when the planet\u2019s disk spans 9\u2033 and appears 22 percent lit.<\/p>\n
Ruddy Mars joins Mercury in evening twilight during the first half of November. The two reach conjunction on the 12th, when Mercury slides 1.3\u00b0 south (upper left) of Mars. The two make a fine sight along with Antares, and all three will fit in a single binocular field. Don\u2019t confuse the Red Planet with the red supergiant Antares. Magnitude 1.4 Mars lies below the star and appears a bit dimmer.<\/p>\n
Turn a telescope on Mars and you\u2019re sure to be disappointed. It lies on the far side of the solar system from Earth and looks tiny, with an apparent diameter of just 4\u2033. Both Mars and Mercury disappear into the solar glare after midmonth.<\/p>\n
Once darkness falls and Mercury and Mars have vanished, turn your attention to the north. There you\u2019ll find Saturn located about two-thirds of the way from the horizon to the zenith. The ringed planet shines at magnitude 0.8, easily the brightest object in the so-called water constellations that cover much of our spring evening sky. Saturn lies in the northeastern corner of Aquarius the Water-bearer, just across that constellation\u2019s border with Pisces the Fish.<\/p>\n
A telescope transforms the planet from a bright point of light into a stunning world. Saturn\u2019s disk measures 19\u2033 across in mid-November while the ring system spans 42\u2033. You might have a hard time discerning the rings, however, because they tilt a minuscule 0.4\u00b0 to our line of sight. Use the minimal glare from the rings to look for subtle details in the gas giant\u2019s atmosphere as well as several of the planet\u2019s moons.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll have to wait several hours for the next planet to appear, but it\u2019s worth the delay. Jupiter rises among the background stars of Gemini the Twins, to the south (upper right) of the constellation\u2019s two brightest stars, Castor and Pollux. At magnitude \u20132.4, the giant planet outshines all stars, including brilliant Sirius. Jupiter begins retrograde (westward) motion Nov. 11, heralding its upcoming opposition in January.<\/p>\n
Wait until the planet climbs higher as dawn approaches before turning your telescope in its direction. With an equatorial diameter of 42\u2033 in mid-November, the gas giant\u2019s disk should show a wealth of detail under steady seeing conditions. The smallest instruments also reveal the planets four bright Galilean moons.<\/p>\n
Although Venus is the brightest planet, it is essentially unobservable this month from mid-southern latitudes. The planet begins November 16\u00b0 west of the Sun, but it stands just 2\u00b0 above the eastern horizon 30 minutes before sunrise. The inner planet will return to view on March evenings.<\/p>\n
The starry sky<\/p>\n
If you look high in the north late on any November evening, you\u2019ll spot the sprawling constellation Cetus the Whale. This star pattern holds a single Messier object, the Squid Galaxy (M77), and it\u2019s worth exploring with a telescope.<\/p>\n
French astronomer Charles Messier (1730\u20131817) compiled a list of non-stellar objects more than two centuries ago. His only interest was in finding comets \u2014 he discovered 13 independently \u2014 so he wanted to catalog those objects observers could mistake for comets. The Squid Galaxy became the 77th entry in his catalog.<\/p>\n
Of course, no one recognized galaxies for what they were in Messier\u2019s time. Indeed, the great astronomer recorded the object as a \u201ccluster of stars,\u201d even though he could not possibly have resolved any part of M77. He would have seen the object as a patch of light, as you will when you first set eyes on it. Look for M77 0.9\u00b0 east-southeast of 4th-magnitude Delta (\u03b4) Ceti. Once you have Delta in the middle of an eyepiece field, nudge the scope 20\u2032 south and wait a bit more than three minutes. M77 will then lie at the center of the field.<\/p>\n
At 9th magnitude, the galaxy makes a fine target for relatively small scopes. A 7.5cm instrument is enough to spot it, but it appears better with greater aperture. The galaxy shows up easily because it has a concentrated central region.<\/p>\n
M77 is a Seyfert galaxy \u2014 an active galaxy with a bright nucleus that emits strongly across a broad range of wavelengths. The radiation comes from an accretion disk surrounding a central supermassive black hole. It\u2019s the same process that powers quasars, but, unlike quasars, the galaxy itself shows up clearly.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, M77 recently \u201cmigrated\u201d across the celestial equator. In standard epoch 2000.0 coordinates, M77\u2019s center lies just 48\u2033 south of the celestial equator. But in the 25 years since, precession has carried the galaxy through the equator to the northern side. Its slowly changing declination current stands at 6\u2032 north.<\/p>\n
Star Dome<\/p>\n
The map below portrays the sky as seen near 30\u00b0 south latitude. Located inside the border are the cardinal directions and their intermediate points. To find stars, hold the map overhead and orient it so one of the labels matches the direction you\u2019re facing. The stars above the map\u2019s horizon now match what\u2019s in the sky.<\/p>\n
The all-sky map shows how the sky looks at:<\/p>\n
11 p.m. November 1
10 p.m. November 15
9 p.m. November 31<\/p>\n
Planets are shown at midmonth<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gas giants Saturn (left) and Jupiter are some of the planetary highlight’s in this month’s sky. Credit: NASA\/JPL\/Space…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,709,7882,82,69604],"class_list":["post-115459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-magazine","tag-observing","tag-science","tag-sky-this-month"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}