Our star maps show the sky in transition between the stars of summer, represented by the Summer Triangle of Vega, Deneb and Altair, and the stunning vistas of winter, centred on Orion. The Triangle still looms high in the SSW at nightfall, but it lies in the middle of our W sky at the map times as Orion rises below Taurus and the Pleiades in the E. High in the S are Pegasus and Andromeda which featured in our previous note.
It is disappointing to find no bright planets visible at the map times. We do have one early evening planet, Mars, which shines reddish and low in the SSW at nightfall, albeit 3° higher than it did a month ago. Tracking eastwards above the Teapot of Sagittarius, it dims slightly from mag 0.9 to 1.0. Catch it 7° below the Moon on 26 November.
After Mars sets, at about 19:15 throughout November, we must wait well beyond our map times for Jupiter to make its entrance. Rising in the ENE at about 23:30 on the 1st, and by 21:45 on the 30th, it is conspicuous at mag -2.0 to -2.2 as it creeps eastwards in W Leo, above and to the right of Regulus. It is unmistakable high in the S before dawn at present. As Jupiter stands above-left of the last quarter Moon before dawn on the 14th, a telescope shows its cloud-banded disc to be 38 arcsec wide.
Super-swift meteors of the Leonids shower diverge from the Sickle of Leo, the backwards question-mark of stars that lies to the left of Jupiter at present. The shower is active from the 15th to 20th and peaks early on the 18th. They have produced some spectacular storms in the past but, with their parent Comet Tempel-Tuttle far away at present, expect to count fewer than 20 meteors per hour this year.
Both Saturn and Venus are hidden in the Sun’s glare, but Mercury is enjoying its best spell of the year as a morning star low in the ESE before dawn. It rises 115 minutes before the Sun on the 1st and shines at mag -0.5 as it stands 10° high 40 minutes before sunrise. By the 15th, as we start to lose it in the twilight, these figures reduce to 80 minutes and 5°. Meantime, Spica, the leading star of Virgo, climbs from below Mercury to pass 5° right of the planet on the 7th.
November diary
1st 13h Mercury furthest W of Sun (19°)
3rd 06h Mercury 5° N of Spica
6th 22h Full moon
7th 23h Moon 8° S of Pleiades
8th 20h Moon 1.4° N of Aldebaran
14th 15h Last quarter; 18h Moon 5° S of Jupiter
15th 10h Moon 5° S of Regulus
18th 01h Peak of Leonids meteor shower; 09h Saturn in conjunction with Sun
19th 16h Moon 2.6° N of Spica
22nd 13h New moon
26th 10h Moon 7° N of Mars
29th 10h First quarter
