this week), turn around: The Pointers of the Big Dipper stand upright low due north, straight below Polaris.Īlso at this time, turn east: The first stars of Orion are soon to rise above the eastern true horizon (for the world's mid-northern latitudes). Whenever Fomalhaut is "southing" (crossing the meridian due south, which it does around 7 p.m. ■ Fomalhaut is the 1st-magnitude star twinkling about two fists at arm's length lower left of Jupiter. If you want to try, however, you do have about an hour of moonless darkness between moonset and the beginning of dawn (for the mid-latitudes of North America). ■ The Leonid meteor shower, typically weak to begin with, should peak very late tonight but will be largely washed out by the light of the waxing gibbous Moon. ■ Around 8 p.m., depending on where you live, zero-magnitude Capella rises exactly as high in the northeast as zero-magnitude Vega has sunk in the west-northwest the season is tipping to cold. No matter where they are, Sirius always follows two hours behind Orion. Above Aldebaran is the little Pleiades cluster, the size of your fingertip at arm's length.įar left of Aldebaran and the Pleiades shines bright Capella.ĭown below Orion, Sirius rises around 10 or 11 p.m. High above Orion shines orange Aldebaran. Orion is clearing the eastern horizon (depending on how far east or west you live in your time zone). Algol takes several additional hours to fade and to rebrighten. ■ Algol in Perseus should be at its minimum brightness, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple hours tonight centered on 12:36 a.m. Cygnus currently flies high to Aquila's upper right. This arrangement reminds me of another Summer Triangle bird, Cygnus the Swan, whose long neck and backbone also run along the Milky Way. Down from there runs Aquila's dim backbone, along the Milky Way when the sky is dark and moonless. Just upper right of Altair, by a finger's width at arm's length, is 3rd-magnitude Tarazed. Altair is the only bright star in that area. ■ In early evening Altair shines in the southwest about halfway up the sky, three or four fists left of brighter Vega. It's much closer and tougher, but is plainly resolved in a small telescope.Īnd Delta Lyrae, upper left of Zeta by a similar distance, is a much wider and easier binocular pair. Zeta is also a double star for binoculars. And a 4-inch telescope at 100× or more should, during good seeing, resolve each of Epsilon's wide components into a tight pair. The triangle is less than 2° on a side, hardly the width of your thumb at arm's length.īinoculars easily resolve Epsilon. Epsilon forms one corner of a roughly equilateral triangle with Vega and Zeta Lyrae. Barely above Vega is 4th-magnitude Epsilon Lyrae, the Double-Double. Three of Lyra's stars near Vega are interesting doubles. Its little constellation Lyra extends to its left, pointing as always to Altair, which is currently the brightest star in the southwest. ■ Vega is the brightest star high in the west on November evenings. The east side of the Square points down toward Beta Ceti - not as directly, and not as far. Its stars are 2nd and 3rd magnitude.Ī sky landmark to remember: The west (right-hand) side of the Great Square points far down almost to 1st-magnitude Fomalhaut. It's somewhat larger than your fist at arm's length. When you face south, the Square is level like a box by about 7 p.m. ■ Look very high above the Moon for the Great Square of Pegasus. To find Spica? It's about three fists at arm's length lower right of brighter Arcturus. Bring those binoculars! Day by day, Mercury will sink lower and Mars will creep just a little higher. This conjunction takes place in the afternoon for North America, with Ceres moving west by 12 arcminutes per day." You'll need a low east-northeast horizon to try for Mercury departing and Mars emerging in the dawn. On November 12, Ceres passes within 9 arcminutes north of 75 Tauri. star 75 Tauri is 24 arcminutes north of Theta-1. "These stars are 5.5 arcminutes apart, magnitudes 3.8 and 3.4. Victor points out to us that tonight, "Ceres is passing north of the naked-eye pair Theta-1 and Theta-2 Tauri," the brightest stars of the House. Its path is mapped in the November Sky & Telescope, page 50 (where the date ticks are for 0:00 Universal time, which falls on the evening of the previous date for North America.)Īldebaran and the Hyades are well up in the east by 9 p.m. At magnitude 7.3, Ceres is not too hard in binoculars. ■ For binoculars: The largest asteroid, 1 Ceres, is currently passing just above the little tilted House asterism in the Hyades, located a finger-width at arm's length west of Aldebaran. ■ This evening the Moon shines left of Jupiter and Saturn, forming a gentle curving arc with them. Nova Cassiopeiae 2021 was still about magnitude 8.2 as of November 11th, almost 8 months after it erupted.
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