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S S M T W F S S M T W T h F S S M W Th F S S M T W T h F S S 26 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 The Moon shine s above Venus and Mars. Mars ends the month 6.6° to the lower right of Venus. New Moon (9:14 p.m. EST). Mercury is at greatest eastern elongation. Pluto is in conjunc- tion with the Sun. The waning crescent Moon shines to Spica’supper left before dawn. Moon at apogee,2 h UT (distance 404,695 km,diameter 29' 32"). The Moon shines near Regulus in the early-morning hours. Mars passes the globular cluster M22. Venus is near Sigma Sagittarii;Mars is near Lambda Sagittarii. After the Moon rises in early evening,look for Aldebaran to its upper right. Full Moon (9:12 a.m. EST). Moon at perigee,8 h UT (distance 363,380 km,diameter 32' 53"). Mars passes the La- goon Nebula,M8, this evening and tomorrow. The crescent Moon is nearly in a line with Mars and Venus low in the southwest at dusk. • Venus is at greatest elongation. • Jupiter is at eastern quadrature. • The Moon occults Saturn for SE United States in evening and much of Europe late at night. • Venus is 1.5°south of λ Sagittarii. The Moon shines above Jupiter. Mars starts the month 3°to the upper right of Venus. N O V E M B E R THE NEAR SKY: A HALO PUZZLE The Sun, Moon, and Pla nets in Nov ember meridian due south — ar ound 10 p.m. at Nov ember’ s beginni ng and 8 p.m. at month’s end. Early on the ev ening of November 11th the ringed wonder undergoes a stunning grazing occultation by the nearly full Moon for observers in a narrow band from south Texas to southern New Jersey and Cape Cod; see the map in l ast Janu- ary’s issue, page 90. For observers south of that line the occul tation is total. Viewers north of there can see Sat urn skim past the Moon’s north pole. In additi on to occu lting Saturn, the waxing Moon forms a nearly horizontal line with Venus and Mars on November 3rd, hangs well above V enus on the 4th, and stands just a few degrees above Jupiter on the 7th. Fred Schaaf welcomes mail at 681 Port Eliza- beth-Cumberland Rd., Millville, NJ 08 332, and e-mail at [email protected]. During the November dusk bright Venus and faint Mars shine low in the southwest. Watch the stars of Sagittarius skim under them as the month progresses. On November 11th the nearly full Moon almost overpowers Saturn quite close to it. Venus σ Mars Moon Nov 5 Moon Nov 4 Moon Nov 3 Moon Nov 2 Dusk,November 2 – 5 S A G I T T A R I U S SSW W SW W 10° Moon Nov 12 Moon Nov 11 Moon Nov 10 Dusk,November 10 – 12 P I S C E S Saturn Diphda T he wonderful evening display of planets we’re having this autumn keeps getting more inter esting. After November sundowns V enus and Mars shine in the south- west, Jupiter in the south, and Saturn in the southeast. The wide span of these four pla nets con tracts from 110° to 87° long dur- ing November , and Mercury becomes visible as an addition to its western end late in the month. For most of November all eight of Earth’s fell ow planets are above the horizon at nightfall. Since Pluto is too low to observe, an observational feat to try instead is viewing the five bright classi cal planets with a single scan of the naked ey e. (Eve n a sixth naked-eye planet is possible, if you have ideal sky condi- tions and can glimpse Uranus about 8° west of Jupiter.) Meanwhile, optical aid will show impressive and rare con- junctions and occultations this month. Venus is the first planet you’ll spot — maybe even before sunset if you know just wher e to look in the southwest. Turn yo ur tele- scope on it before it becomes too dazzling against a darkened sky. Blazing at magnitude –4.4, Venus r eaches its greatest elonga- tion 47° from th e Sun on the ev ening of Nov ember 5th . But early November also finds Venus at its most southerly declina- tion (–27° in Sagittarius) and beginning its return north ward. So the planet will actually keep getting a little higher at dusk for another month (for readers at midnorthern latitudes). Telescope users should follow Venus carefully in late October and early Nove mber, because the planet normally reaches di- chotomy — the appearance of being exactly half-lit — several days before greatest evening elongation. On what date do you judge that this happens? During November Venus skims the lid of the Sagittarius Teapot. It pas ses 1. 5° s ou t h of 3r d- magni tude Lambda (λ ) Sagittarii on November 11th. On the 17th it shines 0.3° from 2nd-mag- nitude Sigma (σ) Sagittarii (Nunki) for East Coast vie wers,and 0.2° from it by the time twilight reaches the West Coast. Mars remains close to the right of Venus all November . It’s about 160 times fainter at magnitude +1.1 but should still be easy to find. Their separat ion i ncre ases ve ry slowly fro m 3° to 6.6° during November as they race acr oss Sagitta rius. They wer e close st, 2.1° apart,on October 25t h. The two planets ar e only about 10° high when twilight ends (as viewed from 40° north latitude). So good sky condit ions and a good telescope will be needed if you want to see M8, the Lagoon Nebula, when Mars passes within 1 ⁄ 2° of it on Nov ember 9th and 10th. Mars goes similarly clo se by the big globular cluster M22 on Novem- ber 19th. The same evening that Venus nudges by Nunki (November 17th), Mars is less than a degree n orth of Lambda Sagittarii. Jupiter, the brightest planet after Venus, shines high in the south at nightfall.It’s at easter n quadr ature (90° east of the Su n) on Nov ember 5t h. The most un usual Jupiter event of the month is its occulta- tion o f the 6th -magni tude st ar SAO 164156 on the evening of November 12th; see page 104. Don’t fo rget to loo k the night before to see the star about 7' to Jupiter’s east, and the night after to see the star paired with similarly bright Callisto. Do the two look different at high power in your telescope? Uranus and Neptune are off to the lo wer The Moon diagrams in the calendar show the Moon’s phase at 0 h UT every two days.Celestial north is up, and a tick in- dicates the Moon’s north pole.The red dot shows the Moon’s limb tipped into best view by libration ; the dot’s size indi- catesby how much.The maximum libra tion plott ed is 9.1° on Novemb er 1 7th; the minimum plotte d is 2.0° on the 11th. Moon diagrams adapted by Guy Ottewell from his Astronomical Calendar 1997. Reader Ed Kane of Gordonville, Pennsylvania, says he has long enjoyed observing day- time halo phenomena. Kane sends the following account of what appear to be halo ef- fects observed in late October or early November 1533 over Moravia in eastern Europe. The writer is Jakob Hutter,leader of a communal group that eventually came to be knownas the Hutt erite s.“My belov ed child ren .. .we saw thr ee sun s in t he sky for .. . about an hour, as well as two rainbows.These had their backs turned towards each other,almost touching in the middle,and their ends pointed away fro m each other.. .. “After a while the two suns and rainbows disappeared,and only the one remained. Even though the other two suns were not as bright as the one,they were clearly visi- ble.I feel this was no small miracle;it was a sign from God. . . .” Can you figure out what kinds of halo phenomena the Hutterites were probably s ee in g? Wr i te to me if you can.I’ ll ha ve an answer here next mont h. F. S . T e a r o u t t h i s m o n t h l y c a l e n d a r f o r u s e o u t d o o r s . P E K K A P A R V I A I N E N right of Jupiter after dus k. Use bi noculars and the chart on page 84 of the May issue to add them to your t ally in this planet ful month. Pluto is invisible; it passes through c on- junction with the Sun on November 27th. Mercury becomes visible low in the west-southwest at dusk in the second half of November — but it’ s not having a very good apparition.The fleet, hot world pulls out to gre atest el ongat ion 22° east of the Sun on No vember 2 8th, but much of this separation is leftward, not upw ard from the horiz on, as seen from mid northern latitudes. Starting around No vember 15th, look for Mercury very far to the lower right of Venus about 30 to 45 minutes after sundown. Saturn burns alone in the southeast at nightfall, while all the other planets are confined to the sector of the ecliptic be- tween south and w est. Not until midev e- ning does Saturn transit the sky’s central ©1997 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.