Photo of the Week. Subtle, fleeting sunbeams
("anti-crepuscular rays") are caused by cloud shadows. The reverse
of the usual sunbeams that seem to
diverge from the Sun, after passing overhead they appear converge
to a point near the opposite horizon. The evening waxing gibbous Moon watches the show.
Astronomy news for the week starting Friday, November 5, 2010.
Our week begins with the new Moon, which takes place the night of
Friday, November 5. The first glimpse of a very thin crescent might be had under near-
perfect conditions in twilight the evening of Sunday the 7th, with
the Moon making its appearance just down and to the right of Mars, the two making a
nice triangle with Antares (of Scorpius), which will be off to the
left, the star notably brighter than the planet. Binoculars,
however, are a requirement, as the low sky will be so bright with
twilight.
And too bad, as it's such a nice pairing, Antares sharing Mars's name, "Ant-Ares" meaning "like
Mars," "Ares" the Greek version of the god of war. Formal
conjunction between the two takes place on Tuesday the 9th, Mars
passing 4 degrees north of the star. The following nights become
increasingly better for the Moon as the crescent, climbing ever-
higher night after night, heads towards first quarter on Saturday the 13th.
Mars can for a time be forgotten. Not so Venus, which is
now beginning to claim its dominance of the morning sky, the
brilliant planet rising just about the time dawn begins to light
the eastern horizon. Getting rapidly higher and brighter, it will
achieve maximum brilliance for this round on December 4, making a
much finer sight than it did in early autumn's evening performance.
Before Venus makes its mark, you can always admire Saturn, which now rises around 4 AM
STANDARD time (a good time to note that the clocks get turned back
on Sunday the 7th).
Earlier, in the evening, we still have Jupiter to contend with, the bright planet
(second only to Venus and close to the Aquarius-Pisces
border) crossing the meridian to the
south about 8:30 PM. With it (and neighboring Uranus to the northeast)
setting around 2:30 AM, the sky is planetless for more than an hour
before Saturn rises. Moving farther out, not that anyone will much
notice, dim Neptune stops
its
retrograde movement on Sunday the 7th, and begins once again
its agonizingly slow easterly trek against the stars of extreme
northeastern Capricornus.
Speaking of which, the early part of the week, with the Moon more
or less out of the way, is ideal for searching for such faint constellations. The most obvious
configuration is the "Y"-shaped "Water
Jar" of Aquarius, which around 7 PM sits on the meridian about
half way up the sky, Capricornus down and to the right, Pisces up
and to the left. The dark sky might also help in picking up some
meteors from the two Taurid streams, which occupy much of the
month, giving us perhaps 10 an hour after midnight. They seem to
be related to the very-short-period Comet Encke, which goes around
the Sun in but 3.3 years.
