November star calendar
NOV. 1 (Sunday): “Fall Back”. Daylight savings time ends. Set clocks one hour back. This is a boon to astronomers who can now begin to enjoy longer periods of (hopefully) clear dark skies.
NOV. 10 (Tuesday): Mercury at greatest elongation west. This will be a great time to catch a glimpse of the most elusive naked eye planet in our solar system. At 6 a.m. Mercury will be 11 degrees above the ESE horizon (about the width of your fist held at arm’s length). You may want to start looking at 5:30 a.m. when Mercury will be on the horizon and the sky will be darker making it easier to see.
An extra added bonus will be Venus just 13 degrees above Mercury. Mercury will be very bright at magnitude -0.62 but Venus will outshine it nearly eight times at magnitude -4. To make this an even happier event, you’ll see the “smile” of the thin waning crescent moon above Venus. It’ll be a great photo op for your smartphone camera! Don’t fret if it’s cloudy this morning. Mercury will be well positioned to see at about 30 minutes before sunrise at least through the third week of November. NOV. 11-13 (Wednesday through Friday): Mercury, Venus and the moon. At 6 a.m. each morning, the “smile” of the waning crescent moon will get thinner to razor thin on Nov. 13 as it travels between Venus and Mercury. NOV. 18 (Wednesday): Saturn, Jupiter and the moon. At 6 p.m. you can look above the SSW horizon to see these three objects in only a 5 degree area of the sky, which is about the width of three fingers held together at arm’s length. Saturn will be the dimmest to the left and slightly above Jupiter, which itself will be close to the thin waxing crescent moon. Another photo op for your smartphone – this time in the early evening.
NOV. 29 (Sunday): Full Beaver Moon. I prefer to call this the Full Ice Moon because almost no one hunts beaver anymore. Native Americans used this moon to light their way during beaver hunts just as thin ice started forming on lakes and ponds. Technically, this month’s full moon will occur at 2:30 a.m. on Nov. 30, but most of us will be asleep by then. That’s why I picked the night before when you can see it rise at nearly full phase.