What's Up?

This page shows a brief summary of what interesting things we can see in the sky this month.  

A more detailed version of 'What's Up' this month is available as a downloadable Word document right at the bottom of this page. 

We are now among the "wet" constellations:

• Capricornus the water goat.
• Pisces the fishes.
• Piscis Austrinus the southern fish with brilliant Formalhaut in its mouth, (it means mouth of the fish).
• Eridanus the River.
• Cetus the Whale
• Aquarius the water bearer.
• ISS is a morning object at the moment.

The Sun

The Sun is approaching sunspot maximum so expect spots and auroras.

The Moon

The phases of the Moon are as follows:

• First Quarter -1st November
• Full Moon - 8th November
• Last Quarter - 16th November
• New Moon - 23rd November

Darkest nights for observing will be from the 19th to the 26th of November.

Mercury is a tricky morning object for a couple of days then hides behind Sol on 8th November.

Venus - although an evening object she is too close to the sun to see.

Mars is a brilliant evening object at opposition on the 8th but getting higher each day.

Jupiter is still the brightest thing after the moon, shadow transits on 5 nights.

Saturn moving closer to the twilight, still easy to find from Jupiter.

Uranus is at opposition on the 9th of November,  high in the South it is visible all night even in binoculars.

Neptune in Aquarius sets about midnight so check it out early, Distance 30AU.

Asteroids

N/A.

Meteors

Taurid Meteors, big and slow moving, can be spotted anytime this month. There are two peaks on 5th November and 20th November; both have a ZHR of 5. The moon will not spoil peak 2.

The Leonids ZHR 20 will peak on the 17th/ 18th (Sunday night ) However they can be seen anytime from the 15th to the 20th of November, usually after midnight. Small and fast moving, they differ completely from the Taurids. The moon will not spoil the peak Alpha Monocerotids, ZHR 5, peaks on 22nd, visible from 15th to 25th November. The Moon is new.

Deep Sky

• Darkest nights, due to lack of moonlight, are from the 20th to 27th October.   
• This is a good time to explore the Milky Way; start in the West at Altair in Aquilla (it's the bright ‘point’ of the Summer Triangle). and rise up into Sagitta ‘the arrow’. Between Gamma and Delta (the point and the shaft) look for the open cluster NGC6838 or M71, a modest globular cluster.
• Continuing into the Eastern sky, Perseus - best known for the double cluster is also host to M34 or NGC1039, a good cluster  easily resolved in a telescope, about half way between Algol and Alamak (Gamma Andromeda).
• Next in the tour is Auriga the charioteer. Generally seen as a five sided figure, it used to be called the hay-rick (it’s upside down this month) and it has something in common with the ‘square of Pegasus’ in that they have both lost a member star to a neighbouring constellation, in this case El Nath, the southernmost corner of the hayrick is now Beta Taurus. Between this star and Theta Aurigus are no less than three good clusters, M36, M37 and M38.

Television

The Sky at night - Monday 14th November 22:00 on BBC4 -  The Multiverse of Mystery