Ben (Flickr, CC BY-ND 4.0)<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\nFriday, November 6
The waning Moon leaves us with perfect skies for deep-sky observing. Let\u2019s kick off the week with a bright planetary nebula in Aquarius: NGC 7293, commonly known as the Helix Nebula.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite its impressive magnitude of 7.3, the Helix presents a challenge: It is a broad 13\u2019 across, which spreads its light over a relatively large part of sky, lowering its overall surface brightness. That said, you can still find the Helix in large binoculars or any small scope, tucked into southeastern Aquarius, roughly 7.7\u00b0 southwest of magnitude 3.3 Skat (Delta [\u03b4] Aquarii). If you turn south around 7 P.M. local time, find Skat to the upper right of bright Fomalhaut in Piscis Austrinus, then scan to its lower right, toward 5th-magnitude 66 Aqr. That star lies about halfway between Skat and the Helix Nebula.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Once you\u2019ve located the Helix, the more magnification you can turn on it, the better. Larger amateur scopes will start to show structure in the ring of glowing gas surrounding the central white dwarf, with the northern and southern edges glowing brighter than the eastern and western sides. That gas was once part of the central star, which puffed up and blew away its outer layers as it aged.
Sunrise: 6:35 A.M.
Sunset: 4:52 P.M.
Moonrise: 3:56 A.M.
Moonset: 3:16 P.M.
Moon Phase: Waning crescent (5%) <\/p>\n
Saturday, November 7
Venus is our (morning) star of the week, capturing attention above the eastern horizon before sunrise. This morning, the Moon passes 1.1\u00b0 due south of Earth\u2019s sister planet at 7 A.M. EST.\u00a0<\/p>\n
You can easily catch the pair an hour before sunrise, some 6\u00b0 high in the east and climbing as the sky begins to brighten. Magnitude \u20134.5 Venus blazes to the upper left of the delicate crescent Moon, whose western limb is just barely lit as the Sun sets across the lunar nearside. Look for earthshine on the already-shadowed portion of Luna\u2019s face, as sunlight bouncing off Earth lights it up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Near Venus is another bright light: This is Spica, Virgo\u2019s alpha star, shining at magnitude 1.0 and also lingering in the morning twilight. This morning it lies 1.3\u00b0 northeast of Venus, with the planet and star roughly side by side above the horizon. Use this view as an anchor point: By the 10th, Venus will have moved to stand due west of this star and will be located to its upper right.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sunrise: 6:36 A.M.
Sunset: 4:51 P.M.
Moonrise: 5:01 A.M.
Moonset: 3:40 P.M.
Moon Phase: Waning crescent (1%) <\/p>\n
![\"Jupiter](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/ASY-SM1126_07.png\")
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\t\tIo and Callisto are transiting Jupiter early on Nov. 8, with Io\u2019s shadow visible on the cloud tops. Although Io\u2019s transit begins after Callisto\u2019s, the former will catch up with and overtake the latter by 3:30 a.m. EST. Credit: Astronomy: Roen Kelly<\/p>\n
Sunday, November 8
Rising with the stars of western Leo shortly before midnight, bright Jupiter and its Galilean moons put on a show early this morning, better visible the farther east you\u2019re located.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jupiter is just under 5\u00b0 northwest (to the upper right) of Regulus as they rise in the east. Fainter Mars stands roughly 3\u00b0 above Jupiter. You\u2019ll want your telescope trained on the gas giant soon after rising to catch the show, which begins at 1:29 A.M. EST as a shadow appears on the planet\u2019s eastern limb. This is Io\u2019s shadow \u2014 but don\u2019t be fooled by the positions of the moons you see in your scope. The moon closest to Jupiter on the east is Callisto, while the moon just east of that is Io, whose shadow we see. Ganymede lies farthest east, while Europa is currently hidden behind the planet in an occultation. The latter appears from behind the eastern limb about 1:54 A.M. EST, not long before Callisto reaches the planet and begins a transit at 2:07 A.M. EST.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Keep an eye on Io and Europa: Io passes north of Europa at 2:23 A.M. EST, then heads into its own transit about 2:42 A.M. EST. Now the race is on, as Io approaches and then catches up with Callisto as the two moons transit, passing Callisto and moving west of it within half an hour. The two moons and Io\u2019s shadow continue to transit until 3:45 A.M. EST, when Io\u2019s shadow leaves the western limb, and Io takes about an hour and a quarter longer before egress. Callisto continues trundling along, finally finishing its transit about 5:51 A.M. CST, with the sky now starting to brighten with twilight in the Midwest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sunrise: 6:37 A.M.
Sunset: 4:50 P.M.
Moonrise: 6:07 A.M.
Moonset: 4:08 P.M.
Moon Phase: New <\/p>\n
![\"Path](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/ASY-SM1126_02.png\")
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\t\tComet Hartley-IRAS is crossing an extremely crowded portion of the sky, but its green glow should give it away in astrophotos. Credit: Astronomy: Roen Kelly<\/p>\n
Monday, November 9
New Moon occurs at 2:02 A.M. EST. Dark skies make tonight the perfect opportunity to try spotting Comet 161P\/Hartley-IRAS, still nearly 50\u00b0 above the western horizon two hours after sunset.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Glowing around 10th magnitude, the comet is currently located in far northern Aquila, near the Eagle\u2019s border with Sagitta the Arrow. You can use Aquila\u2019s bright luminary, Altair, to guide your way \u2014 the comet floats 7.7\u00b0 north-northeast of this star. A closer but fainter guide is 4th-magnitude Alpha (\u03b1) Sagittae, just 2.3\u00b0 north of the comet\u2019s position tonight. Even a small scope will nab you the comet, but larger apertures will yield better views. Under high magnification, look at the comet\u2019s southern side, which should be sharper as it plows into the solar wind.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not far from Hartley-IRAS\u2019 position is the famous Coathanger asterism, located in Vulpecula the Fox. Cataloged as Collinder 399, you\u2019ll find it roughly 5\u00b0 northwest of the comet\u2019s position, or about 4\u00b0 northwest of Alpha Sge. Visible in binoculars or any telescope (in this case, lower magnification is better), you\u2019ll immediately see why this star pattern bears its name. It looks exactly like its namesake, with a line of stars bisected by a small curve extending to the south. At the Coathanger\u2019s eastern edge lies the open cluster NGC 6802.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sunrise: 6:38 A.M.
Sunset: 4:49 P.M.
Moonrise: 7:12 A.M.
Moonset: 4:40 P.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent (1%) <\/p>\n
Tuesday, November 10
The waxing crescent Moon passes 0.3\u00b0 south of Antares at midnight EST, although the pair is not visible at that time. You can catch our satellite setting in the west around sunset, although it will likely disappear before Antares pops out of the twilight \u2014 that will likely happen only shortly before the star itself sets as well.<\/p>\n
Instead, challenge yourself with a different type of observation: picking up Saturn\u2019s moon Iapetus, which tonight reaches greatest eastern elongation 9.4\u2019 east of the ringed planet. The two-toned moon is tidally locked to its parent world, which means it rotates in time with its orbit. At eastern elongation, Iapetus\u2019 darker hemisphere faces earthward, reducing the moon\u2019s magnitude to nearly 12. This, combined with its distance from Saturn, makes it more of a challenge to find, but you can give it a try if you\u2019ve got a larger scope.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Try around 9 P.M. local time when Saturn is highest, some 50\u00b0 above the southern horizon. It\u2019s the brightest point of light in this region of the sky, hanging just below Pisces and to the far upper left of Fomalhaut, the brightest star in Piscis Austrinus (much closer to the horizon). Even if you can\u2019t locate Iapetus or don\u2019t have a large scope, Saturn is magnificent through a telescope. Its disk spans 19\u201d and its rings are roughly 43\u201d across, showing off their southern side. You should definitely spot its largest and brightest moon, mid-8th-magnitude Titan, just over 2\u2019 west of the planet. Depending on your scope and when you look, you may also spot at least three other moons: 10th-magnitude Tethys, Dione, and Rhea, closer to the planet. Tethys lies to Saturn\u2019s west, while Rhea and Dione are to the east.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sunrise: 6:39 A.M.
Sunset: 4:48 P.M.
Moonrise: 8:15 A.M.
Moonset: 5:19 P.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent (4%) <\/p>\n
![\"Simulated](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/11112026.png\")
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\t\tVenus and Spica stand close in the predawn sky all week; on November 11, Venus also comes to a halt, reversing course from westward to eastward motion. Mercury may just be visible above the horizon for a short time before sunrise as well. Credit: Stellarium<\/p>\n
Wednesday, November 11
Venus reaches a stationary point among the stars of Virgo at 10 A.M. EST. This brings its retrograde (westward) motion to an end; after today, Venus will begin moving eastward or prograde through the sky, swinging north of Spica.\u00a0<\/p>\n
You can easily catch the bright planet in the eastern sky before dawn. Venus\u2019 brightness has increased over just the past few days, and it now blazes at magnitude \u20134.7. An hour before sunrise, you\u2019ll easily spot it alongside Spica, standing just to the star\u2019s upper right. Both are 10\u00b0 high and rising as dawn approaches. Check out Venus through a telescope: its disk shows off a crescent phase just 10% lit, but stretches an impressive 53\u201d in the sky.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Also just becoming visible at this time is Mercury, barely 1.5\u00b0 above the horizon and glowing at magnitude 1.2. See if you can locate it about 13\u00b0 east (to the lower left) of Venus, although you\u2019ll need a particularly flat horizon free of trees, buildings, and lights. Mercury, too, rises as twilight brightens, which may make the planet harder to see in the growing light. Try scanning for it with binoculars, although make sure to put them away well before sunrise from your location, which may differ from the time given below.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sunrise: 6:41 A.M.
Sunset: 4:47 P.M.
Moonrise: 9:15 A.M.
Moonset: 6:05 P.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent (8%) <\/p>\n
Thursday, November 12
The constellation Perseus is famous for its bright Double Cluster, but these two open clusters aren\u2019t the only groups of young stars in the Hero worth viewing. Today, let\u2019s shift our gaze to the western portion of this constellation, near its border with Andromeda, to check out M34, a mid-5th-magnitude open cluster containing about 100 stars.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sitting 5.2\u00b0 west-northwest of 2nd-magnitude Algol (Beta [\u03b2] Persei), M34 spans about half a degree, roughly the size of the Full Moon. In physical space, astronomers believe the group spans about 14 light-years and sits 1,400 light-years away. It\u2019s best seen under lower magnifications, such as in binoculars or small amateur scopes (4 inches or so). You\u2019ll spot several dozen stars brighter than 12th magnitude, with its brightest suns spread throughout the cluster.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sunrise: 6:42 A.M.
Sunset: 4:46 P.M.
Moonrise: 10:08 A.M.
Moonset: 6:57 P.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent (14%) <\/p>\n
Friday, November 13
The Moon reaches apogee, the farthest point from Earth in its orbit, at 12:50 P.M. EST. At that time, our satellite will be 252,040 miles (405,619 kilometers) from Earth.<\/p>\n
Celebrate Friday the 13th with something spooky: a ghost in the constellation Andromeda. This evening, point your telescope toward 2nd-magnitude Mirach (Beta [\u03b2] Andromedae), already nearly 60\u00b0 high in the east by 7 P.M. local time. One of the Princess\u2019 brightest stars, Mirach is a cool, reddish M-type giant. It lies some 200 light-years away and shines nearly 2,000 times as brightly as our Sun.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Mirach is not quite our target \u2014 we\u2019re looking for its so-called ghost, just 6.8\u2019 northwest of the star. You\u2019ll need a big scope to see it, but look carefully: Can you spot a faint smudge of light, about 4\u2019 across, close to the star? This is the Ghost of Mirach, a far more distant elliptical galaxy glowing at 10th magnitude and cataloged as NGC 404. It lies some 8 million to 10 million light-years away, just beyond the gravitational bounds of our Local Group of galaxies. It\u2019s called a ghost because it appears almost like a ghostly image of the bright star Mirach, which dominates the view.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sunrise: 6:43 A.M.
Sunset: 4:45 P.M.
Moonrise: 10:54 A.M.
Moonset: 7:55 P.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent (21%) <\/p>\n
Alison Klesman\u00a0is senior editor of\u00a0Astronomy\u00a0magazine. She holds a Ph.D. in astronomy and has studied a variety of topics, from minor planets to supermassive black holes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This meeting of Spica (upper left), Venus (middle), and the Moon occurred in September 2013. This week brings…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,43,7882,82,119979],"class_list":["post-676572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-observing","tag-science","tag-sky-this-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676572","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=676572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Photograph](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Spica-Venus-Moon_4a7669.jpg\")
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