Current Night Sky: November 2019

Daylight Saving Time ends at 2:00 am on Sunday, November 3, for most areas of the U.S. and Canada. In accordance with the adage, "Spring Forward, Fall Back," move your clocks back one hour; 2:00 am EDT becomes 1:00 am EST.

The Moon & Planets: 
Jupiter

As Jupiter's four large moons – Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto – orbit the planet, they regularly pass behind the Jupiter; this is known as an occultation. (They can also pass directly in front of the planet; in that case, we have a transit). For the three inner moons, Io, Europa, and Ganymede, these events occur on every orbit. The outermost of these moons, Callisto, is distant enough that it typically passes above or below the planet’s disk. When the orbital plane of Callisto becomes low enough to our line of sight, it too will be occulted by (and transit) Jupiter on each of its orbits. These periods are known as Callisto’s "eclipse seasons," and last about 3 years; one begins this month, with Callisto barely skimming the south polar region of Jupiter. This eclipse season runs through August 10, 2022; during that period, Callisto is occulted by Jupiter 61 times (November 8, 2019; 11:30 pm EST).

This past July, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first human landing on the Moon by Apollo 11. But Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were not the last people to land on the Moon. Barely three months later, on November 24, 1969, astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean landed on the Moon's Ocean of Storms. In an attempt to perfect techniques of "precision landing" on the lunar surface, they were tasked with setting down near the unmanned Surveyor 3 spacecraft, which had landed more than two and a half years earlier. They succeeded, setting down within easy walking distance of the probe. While exiting the landing craft for the first of two moonwalks, Conrad, who was only 5'6" tall, followed up Armstrong's famous "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" quote with "Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small step for Neil, but that's a long one for me." (Credit: NASA)

Moon, Venus, and Jupiter

The sky after sunset in late November is rich in diverse worlds. On the 28th, the three brightest objects in the night sky – the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter – lie within a circle less than 5° in diameter. Saturn shines not far to their upper left. If you have a telescope, you can see Ceres – the largest asteroid (and a "dwarf planet" in its own right) as a member of the grouping (November 28, 2019; 4:45 pm EST).

Evening Planets (after sunset): 
  • Venus, SW
  • Jupiter, SW
  • Saturn, SW
  • Neptune, SE
  • Uranus, E
Morning Planets (before sunrise): 
  • Mars, ESE
  • Mercury, SE
Comets: 

There are no comets brighter than magnitude 8 currently visible.

Meteors: 

The Leonid meteors peak on November 17/18. Unfortunately, there is a waning gibbous Moon, about two-thirds illuminated, not far from the radiant in Leo. The Moon’s glow will be enough to drown out the fainter meteors. In some years, you might expect to see around 15 meteors per hour; this year, the rate will be substantially reduced.

Phases of the Moon: 
First Quarter Moon November 4 5:23 am EST
Full Moon November 12 8:34 am EST
Last Quarter Moon November 19 4:11 pm EST
New Moon November 26 10:06 am EST

Text, graphics, and animations by John Sheff. Graphics courtesy of Starry Night(©) Pro Plus 7 / Imaginova(©) Corp. Starry Night images are used with permission from Imaginova Corp. Starry Night is a registered trademark of Imaginova Corp. Star charts generated by Starry Night Pro Plus 7 © Imaginova Corp. All rights reserved. www.StarryNight.com