The last quarter moon occurs on November 1, and the following morning the moon passes just south of bright Jupiter and above it, fainter, red Mars in the SE. Mars will pass 1.2 degrees north of Jupiter on November 17. On November 7, the waning crescent moon passes a degree south of brilliant Venus in the dawn, a nice photo op. The new moon is on November 9. The moon is first quarter on November 17. Setting before midnight, it will not interfere with the peak of the Leonid meteor shower that morning. On November 20, the waxing gibbous moon will pass 7 degrees north of Saturn in the SE evening sky. The Full Moon, the Beaver Moon, occurs on November 24. The waning gibbous moon rejoins the planets Mars and Jupiter, now also joining the brightest star in Leo, Regulus, in the dawn sky on the last day of November. It passes south of Jupiter in the dawn, then in daytime, passes Regulus and Mars.
Mercury passes between the Sun and us, but will be visible along Venus in the dawn by Thanksgiving. Venus overtook us last month, and is low and bright in the eastern dawn. It is at its greatest brilliancy at the end of the month. As noted earlier, Mars laps Jupiter on November 14, and then passes just north of Regulus in the dawn on November 24. Jupiter is also in Leo this month, and its four large moons are easy to pick out, in a line with the equator, with any telescope. Only Saturn is well placed for evening observation this month, on the border between Cetus and Pisces. It was closest to us at opposition last month, but still puts on a fine display with its opening rings and multiple moons.
Before we leave the solar system, worth sharing this exquisite photo in September of our home star EAAA president Ed Magowan used the SkyWatcher Heliostar 76 telescope, precisely tuned to the red light of ionized hydrogen in the Sun’s chromosphere, to take this detailed composite of the whole solar disk with his advanced video imagers. The detail is astounding.
Normally, this red, thinner upper atmosphere of the Sun is completely overwhelmed by the bright visible light of the photosphere. But during totality, people often noted that the end of the eclipsed solar disk was projecting tongues of red fire (hence there be dragons?). They were so prominent for those few seconds that they became known as prominences, and with the Ha telescope’s tuners, we can block out all of the visible light except just the deep red spectral line as hydrogen electrons fall in energy from their third to second excited state. Now, of course, the proms are obvious on the limbs, as at totality, but the 4,000-degree hot hydrogen clouds are in fact red, cooler than the brighter yellow photosphere, so Ed has almost captured them sitting as dark clouds (filaments) in front of the disk, especially the long arc just to the left of center here. Sunspots may be cooler, but if they are active, the hot gases appear brighter than the rest of the disk, such as several to the right of center here. Also note the larger filament to the right of them, which appears almost 3D in this shot. The whole surface bubbles with granulation, rising Texas-sized convective cells.
For a detailed map of northern hemisphere skies, visit www.skymaps.com.
Setting in the southwest is the teapot shape of Sagittarius, which marks the heart of our Milky Way Galaxy. The best view of our Galaxy lies overhead now. The brightest star of the northern hemisphere, Vega dominates the sky in the northwest.
To the northeast of Vega is Deneb, the brightest star of Cygnus the Swan. To the south is Altair, the brightest star of Aquila the Eagle, the third member of the three bright stars that make the Summer Triangle so obvious in the NE these clear autumn evenings. Use binocs and your sky map to spot many clusters here, using the SkyMap download to locate some of the best ones plotted and described on the back.
Overhead, the square of Pegasus is a beacon of fall. South of it is the only bright star of Fall, Fomalhaut. If the southern skies of Fall look sparse, it is because we are looking away from our Galaxy into the depths of intergalactic space. The constellation Cassiopeia makes a striking W, rising in the NE as the Big Dipper sets in the NW. Polaris lies about midway between them. Cassiopeia contains many fine star clusters and nebulae for binoculars. Much more distant in her daughter Andromeda is the closest large spiral galaxy comparable to our own Milky Way, M-31. This light has been travelling toward Earth for the last two and a half million years! It is visible with the naked eye on clear dark evenings, the most distant thing your naked eye will probably ever see.
To the northeast, Andromeda’s hero, Perseus, rises. Look to the feet of Perseus for the famed Pleiades cluster to rise, a sure sign of bright winter stars to come. This is probably the best sight in the sky with binoculars, with hundreds of fainter stars joining the famed “Seven Sisters” with 10x50 binocs. In addition to the stars, we see this cluster passing through a nearby cloud of dust and gas, and the stars having their blue light reflected by the dust particles, in the same way our sky in daytime is turned blue by tiny molecules in our atmosphere that in “Rayleigh Scattering” selectively scatter the shorter blue waves, while allowing the reds of sunset and total lunar eclipses to pass through our atmosphere. This fine shot was taken by EAAA President Ed Magowan with a telephoto lens and a time exposure of several minutes, while tracking the Earth’s rotation.
To the NE, yellow Capella, a giant star the same temperature and color as our much smaller Sun, rises at 7 PM as November begins along the northeastern horizon. It is the fifth brightest star in the sky, and a beacon of the colorful and bright winter stars to come in December. South of the pentagon of Auriga, we find Taurus, with orange Aldebaran, the eye of Taurus the Bull, rising in the NE about 7 p.m. by mid-November.
On Friday, November 6, the Pensacola State College planetarium presents “The Season of Light” at 6 p.m. Reserve tickets of this popular show at Purple Pass; the cost is $6 for adults, with discounts for kids and students.
On the Saturdays of the first and third quarter moon, we continue our cooperation with the Florida State Parks at Big Lagoon State Park. Here the emphasis is on learning to observe and photograph the night sky with binoculars or your own telescopes and smartphones or other cameras. Normal entry fees ($6 per car) to Big Lagoon still apply, and remember to check in at the front gate before it closes at sunset! November 14 & 28, Dec 12, January 2, 16 & 3, February 13 & 27, March 13 & 27, and April 10 are the gaze dates for the winter. Clear skies permitting, we set up on Saturdays at East Beach. Check out our Google site and Facebook page for the updated schedule.
For more information on the Escambia Amateur Astronomers, contact our sponsor, Lauren Rogers at Pensacola State College; e-mail her at lrogers@pensacolastate.edu. For more on our stargazes, contact Wayne Wooten by email at johnwaynewooten@gmail.com.Also call him at 850-291-9334 for telescope recommendations for Christmas! All EAAA events are free and open to the public.
