November 2001

By Steve Stefanik

Tonight the planet Mars passes 2 degrees south of the planet Neptune in the constellation Capricornus. Look due south after the sun sets and you will be able to see +0.2 magnitude red-orange Mars with just your eyes. To spot +7.9 Neptune you will need binoculars or a telescope. The planet Uranus is also nearby in the same constellation as Mars and Neptune. You may be able to spot its magnitude +5.8 magnitude blue-green disk, naked eye, away from city lights in rural suburbs. Mars continues moving easterly this month and passes less than 1 degree south of Uranus on the 25^th.

The planet Saturn rises shortly after sunset in the east along with the constellation Taurus. Look for the –0.3 magnitude butterscotch yellow ringed planet between the "horns" of the bull above the first magnitude red-orange star Aldebaran, which is its "eye". Saturn is getting larger and brighter as it approaches opposition next month. This should be one of its best apparitions in years so get out your telescope. On the night of November 30^th, Saturn will be occulted (covered up) by the full moon. You can watch Saturn’s disappearance through binoculars beginning about 7:30 p.m.

Jupiter the giant planet rises two hours after Saturn. Once Taurus is high in the sky, look below and to the northeast amidst the stars of the constellation Gemini the twins. You shouldn’t mistake this –2.6 magnitude behemoth for anything else. Although it won’t reach opposition until next year, it is already 45 arc seconds in apparent diameter. Even a small telescope will reveal its dark bands and "Great Red Spot" which was seen by Galileo through a 2 inch telescope almost 400 years ago.

The planets Mercury and Venus rise above the eastern horizon by 5:00 a.m. The pair is within one moon’s width this first week of November. Venus is brilliant at –3.8 magnitude. Mercury is considerably dimmer at magnitude –0.7. Spica, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo is to the right of the pair. The duo are speeding quickly toward the far side of the sun so we won’t see them in the morning sky by mid-November. They will return in 2002 as evening "stars" in the west.

November is also the month of the annual Leonid meteor shower. It is so named because the meteors appear to "rain" from the constellation Leonis the lion, which rises in the east around 3:00 a.m. The last time we had a spectacular shower was in 1999. This could be another good year because on the night of the 18^th the moon will be only 2 days past new so we may be able to see many more meteors under a dark sky. The reason we are expecting a good show is that we will pass through two streams of debris left in the wake of comet Swift-Tuttle back in 1699 and 1866.