Photo of the Week. More wispy clouds against a blue
sky.
Astronomy news for the week starting Friday, November 1, 2013.
Welcome to November. Though it's the 11th month in our calendar,
the name, out of Latin, refers to the ninth month when you count
March, the month of Vernal
Equinox passage by the Sun, as first. Welcome also to the end
of Daylight
Savings Time on Sunday, November 3. All times below and until
further notice are standard.
We start the week off with the Moon as an ultrathin waning crescent that is almost invisible in
dawn's light as it approaches new the morning of Sunday, November
3, when it will produce a minimal
partial eclipse of the Sun visible at sunrise from the east
coasts of the US and Canada. While it's not worth much of a look
for us, it's a curious event, a combination of annular (the Moon too far away to
cover the Sun completely) and barely total, whose central line passes across
the Atlantic into central Africa. The evening of Monday the 4th,
a thin waxing crescent will show up in
western evening twilight. The evening of Tuesday the 5th, the Moon
will be as bit down and to the right of
Venus, the following evening nearly above the brilliant planet.
Then the evening of Thursday the 7th, find the Moon well up and to
the left of Venus as the crescent fattens
and the Moon heads towards its first
quarter, reached the night of Saturday, November 9. While the
Moon is passing Venus, be sure to admire the Earthlight that illuminates
the lunar night, rendering the whole disk of the Moon quite
visible. On Wednesday the 6th, the Moon passes perigee, where
it is closest to the Earth.
Venus of course leads the planetary parade. Low in the southwest
as evening fades, the planet does not set until nearly an hour
after the sky fully darkens. As the month opens, Venus goes
through its greatest elongation of 47 degrees to the east of the
Sun. Only a few hours later, Mercury passes inferior conjunction with the Sun. While
Venus leaves the evening scene early, Jupiter comes quickly upon
it, rising in the northwest in Gemini below Castor
and Pollux around 9 PM. With us
the rest of the night, the planet shines nearly overhead as dawn
begins to light the east. Jupiter hits a bit of a milestone this
week, when on the night of Wednesday the 6th it ceases its normal
easterly motion against the background stars and begins its westerly
retrograde trek as the Earth prepares to pass between it and
the Sun. By 2 AM, Mars
has launched itself well upward to the south of central Leo, with Regulus to the west of it. Finally,
to complete a busy week, Saturn passes
conjunction with the Sun on Wednesday the 6th.
In mid evening, look high to the south for the Great Square of Pegasus, low for lonely Fomalhaut, as the star crawls
nicely above the southern horizon. Down and to the right, if you
have a flat horizon you might spot Grus, the Crane, one of nine celestial birds, stalking
to the southwest. The others are Apus (the Bird of Paradise), Aquila (the Eagle), Columba (the Dove), Corvus (the Crow), Cygnus (the Swan), Pavo
(the Peacock), the eponymous Phoenix, and Toucana
(the Toucan). Of them all, however, only three (Aquila, Corvus,
and Cygnus) are of ancient origin and, rather curiously, none is in
the Zodiac.
