Mercury reaches superior conjunction - lying directly behind the Sun - on November 5. It becomes visible very low in the evening skies by the end of the month.

Jupiter, at magnitude -2.4, far outshines any stars in its host constellation, Capricornus. The planet reaches its greatest altitude - directly in the south - shortly after sunset. Even a small telescope will reveal the planet's 40 arcsecond-wide disk - and, possibly - the dark North Equatorial and South Equatorial Belts straddling the light-colored Equatorial Zone. Even Galileo's crude telescopes could show the four large moons of the planet in their ever-changing configurations. On November 13, for example, lovers of shadow transits will get their fill; Io's shadow begins transiting the planet at 3:44 pm EST (before sunset). Ganymede's shadow appears at 6:02 EST - just as Io's transit is ending - and continues until 9:35 pm EST.

On November 23, a waxing crescent Moon will pass 3° north of Jupiter; it can provide a useful guide if you're up for the challenge of trying to spot Jupiter during daylight hours with the naked eye.

Neptune also lies in Capricornus, but you'll never be able to see it with unaided vision. At magnitude 7.9, you'll need - at a minimum - good binoculars, and it takes a fair-sized telescope to resolve its 2.3"-wide disk.

Uranus starts the month in Pisces but crosses the boundary into Aquarius on October 12. It lies south of the Circlet asterism of Pisces, and about 5° SSW of Lambda Piscium. Under ideal conditions, the magnitude 5.7 planet is visible to the unaided eye. A telescope shows it as a pale-green 3.7"-wide disk.

Mars, after a prolonged absence from the scene, is finally returning to prominence. On the 1st, Mars rises before 10:30 pm local standard time; by month's end, it is up an hour earlier. During November, it brightens from magnitude +0.4 to -0.1. As the month opens, the Red Planet is passing through the Beehive Cluster (M44); it spends the rest of November making its way through Cancer. It crosses the boundary into Leo the last day of November. On November 8, the waning gibbous Moon lies 3°-4° to the south of Mars.

Mars' apparent diameter increases from 7.9" to 9.9" during the month. This may bring some of the more prominent surface features into reach of amateur telescopes. Certainly the north polar cap will be visible, even though it is in the process of shrinking as spring advances in the northern hemisphere of Mars. Under excellent conditions, features such as Mare Acidalium and Solis Lacus may be visible. This should serve as advance notice: it's time to break out the Mars charts!

Saturn rises at about 3:00 am EST on November 1st, and at about 1:15 AM EST on Nov 30. At magnitude +1.0, it is comparable in brightness to nearby Spica. The disk of the planet itself is just 17" wide at the equator; the rings are 38" across their wide dimension, but their tilt toward our line of sight only increases from 3.1° to 4.3° this month. Saturn's largest moon, Titan, shines at magnitude 8.8. Rhea (10.2), Tethys (10.7), Dione (10.8) and Iapetus (10.2-11.9) round out the major moons.

The waning crescent Moon passes near Saturn on November 12.

Venus rises 90 minutes before the Sun on November 1st, but less than an hour before sunrise by month's end. The planet remains at magnitude -3.9, but it loses altitude noticeably as the month goes on, and will be difficult to see by the time November ends. A telescope presents a view of Venus as a bland disk about 10" across.

Dwarf Planets/Asteroids

Pluto is too close to the Sun to be easily observable in November.

Ceres is too close to the Sun to be observable this month.

Main belt asteroid 3 Juno, about 8° SE of Uranus, dims from magnitude 8.2 to 8.8 this month.

The magnitude 7.5 main belt asteroid 4 Vesta, in Leo, passes about 3° N of Regulus on November 20.