Photo of the Week.Reddish Mars (center) approaches Regulus (at
the end of the Sickle of Leo) the
morning of November 2, 2011. See a labelled
version and full resolution.
Astronomy news for the two weeks starting Friday, November 18,
2011.
Skylights will next appear December 2, 1011.
Our fortnight is bracketed by the quarter Moons, beginning with the
third quarter on Friday, November 18
(which takes place shortly before Moonset in North America) and
finishing with first quarter the morning of
Friday, December 2, with the Moon out of sight. In the middle, the
Moon passes new on the night of Thursday the 24th. Thus during the
first week of our period the Moon thins in its morning-view waning crescent phase, while in the second
week it waxes as an evening crescent.
Your first reasonable view of the waxing crescent will be on the
twilight evening of Saturday the 26th.
The morning of Saturday the 19th, watch the Moon pass eight degrees
south of Mars. Next, on the morning of Tuesday the
22nd, find the Moon to the southwest of Saturn, then the following morning to the southeast
of the planet. A more striking event is reserved for the evening
of Saturday the 26th during twilight, when the slim crescent Moon
will lie just to the right of Venus (with Mercury down and to the right of the
pair and close to the horizon). The following night, the somewhat
fatter crescent will appear well up and to the left of the
brightening planet. In lesser news, as December begins, the Moon
will glide several degrees north of Neptune. Earlier, a day and a
half before it goes through its new phase, the Moon passes perigee, when it
will be closest to Earth. This new Moon also aligns with the Sun,
eclipsing it, but the event is of no interest since it is both
partial and visible only from the Antarctic and a few points
north.
Jupiter
still rules the evening skies, the planet well up in the east as
the sky darkens, crossing the meridian to
the south between 9 and 10 PM (depending on where in our period we
are), then setting well before dawn. The giant of the planetary
system will, however, be rivalled by the growing presence of Venus,
which toward the end of November crosses a divide by setting after
the end of twilight. Look for its brilliant light in the southwest
before the sky darkens, guided (as noted above) by the Moon the
evening of Friday the 26th. Mars, moving rapidly eastward south of
the main figure of Leo (and to the
southeast of Regulus), is now
rising shortly before midnight, Next is Saturn. Replacing Jupiter
in the sky, the ringed planet is now up by 4 AM to the north of Virgo's luminary, Spica.
In early evening, the Great
Square of Pegasus rides
high in the south with the star streams of Andromeda coming off its
northeastern corner. Far to the south of it sits the lonely star
Fomalhaut, the Fish's Mouth,
which is mythologically linked to Aquarius. Look for his "Y"- shaped Water Jar to the southwest of the
Great Square.
