Photo of the Week.The Moon reflects a sliver of
bright sunlight just before total eclipse on October 14, 2014.
Astronomy news for the week starting Friday, October 31, 2014.
Daylight Savings time ends on Sunday, November 2. All times are
now Standard.
The Moon grows from just past first
quarter (which was nicely placed on Thursday, October 30)
through waxing gibbous to full Moon on the evening of Thursday, November 6,
just about the time of Moonrise in North America, giving us a
near-perfect view. This full Moon suffers no eclipse, however, missing the Earth's shadow as it
usually does. The full Moon will lie just north of the roundish
head of Cetus, the Sea Monster
or Whale, but will be so bright as to wash out the faint asterism.
Instead look due east to see Aldebaran in Taurus. Sadly, there are no
significant planetary passages, just one several degrees north of
Neptune the night of Saturday the 1st and another that takes
place during daylight just north of Uranus
on Tuesday the 4th. Of far more significance, the Moon goes
through perigee, where it is closest to Earth, on the evening of
Sunday the 2nd. Halloween (Friday the 31st) marks a "cross
quarter day" that falls between the first day of fall and that of
winter, reminding northerners to get their warm coats out.
The week really belongs to the giant and the shrimp of the
planetary system, to Jupiter and
Mercury. Now rising just before midnight, Jupiter dominates
the morning sky to the west of the Sickle of Leo and the
star Regulus. The planet's four
Galilean Moons (the largest and farthest
out, Ganymede, as big as Mercury) are easily visible in a
small telescope, even in steadily-held binoculars. Mercury makes
a splash by passing greatest western elongation for this orbital
round on Saturday the first, when it rises just at the break of
dawn. With a clear horizon, in growing morning twilight you might
(using binoculars) spot the star Spica nearby,
Mercury the brighter of the two. In the evening, Mars hangs in there
not setting until 8 PM to the west of the Little Milk Dipper of Sagittarius at the beginning of the week, within it by
the end, the red planet almost 25 degrees south of the celestial equator. Just look for the
brightest thing in the southwest in early evening. Note finally
that the Taurid
meteor shower is active after midnight the first half or so
of November.
In mid-evening look for the Great Square of Pegasus (the Flying Horse, of course) as it crosses
the sky high to the south, Andromeda streaming up and to the left from the
northeast corner, the star that marks it, Alpheratz, shared by both constellations. The right hand side
of the Square points downward to Fomalhaut, which sails across the
autumn sky above the southern horizon, with Grus, the Crane, down and to the right. The Square's
left hand side lies just east of the equinoctial colure, the great
circle that connects the equinoxes and the celestial poles.
