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What's Up in SW FL Skies: November Skies, With Planets and Constellations this month

Updated: Nov 10

Moon Phases November 2024 (Eastern Time)

New 1st Quarter Full 3rd Quarter

1 9 16 24


Meteors: Orionids continue through November 22; Southern and Northern Taurids (minor showers) peak Nov 4-5 and 11-12, respectively; Leonids peak Nov 16-17. Look after midnight for best results... and for the Leonids, after 3 am is even better.


The Orionids meteor shower, "The Orionids" for short, is one of two meteor showers associated with Halley's Comet (Comet 1P/Halley). The Orionids are called that because the point in the sky from which they appear to radiate, called the "radiant" of that shower, lies in the constellation Orion - actually several degrees NE of the red supergiant Betelgeuse (one of Orion's shoulders). However, when they are zooming into our atmosphere like bugs on a windscreen, they can be seen over a large area of the sky. The Orionids shower begins around October 2 and continues through November 22 this year, but peaks around the nights of October 21-22. These are best viewed in the hour or two before dawn, when Orion is higher in the SE sky, rather than earlier in the night.


The Southern Taurids and Northern Taurids are active for more than two months but rarely produce more than five shower members per hour, occasionally fireballs. They also have multiple peaks, including one each in November. The debris trail we intersect for these showers is the dust cloud left behind by the last pass of Comet Encke through the inner solar system.


The Leonids is a famous shower that is the result of Earth's orbit intersecting the orbit of comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. The Leonids famous for having produced "meteor storms" (>1000/hr) in the years of 1833, 1866, 1966, 1999, 2001 and 2002. These outbursts are likeliest to be observed when the comet is passing through the inner solar system on its 33-year orbit. However, meteor storms are not due to just the fresh material being ejected in its tails by the comet, but clumps of older debris from earlier returns that happen to be passing through that part of Tempel-Tuttle's orbit at the same time. Right now, people who study this think Earth will not encounter any dense clouds of debris until 2099. So when the comet returns in 2031 and 2064, there may not be any meteor storms, but there might be some good displays of Leonid activity with impressive rates in excess of 100 per hour. This year, probably not that high, but always worth checking out!



Cross-Quarter Day and end of DST early November


Daylight Savings Time ends until November 3rd this year (always on a Sunday, so you have a chance to adjust before going in to work). The cross-quarter day this year falls on November 6th - midway point between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice.


Planets: Sunset, Night and Dawn


We are having weather occasionally this month, when that happens it's a challenge to see much of anything in the night sky. However, if you get a clear SW horizon just after sunset on November 4, you will be able to see a lovely thin crescent Moon right alongside of the planet Venus. Our "Morning star/Evening star which is really a planet" is the early evening planet all month long: Venus is the bright one low in the Southwest after sunset. Brilliant Venus will dominate the lower western sky after sunset nightly throughout November. Mercury will start the month below and to the right of Venus in the very early post-sunset sky, as a tiny point of light low to the horizon between Venus and where the Sun recently set, but it will rise a bit and get brighter until finally it "turns the corner" in its orbit and starts to plunge back toward the Sun from our point of view, fading swiftly in brightness as well, after Nov 21.


At the beginning of the month, the planet Saturn is already well above the southeastern horizon once it's fully dark out. The bright star "below" Saturn is the lovely southern hemisphere star, Fomalhaut.


At the start of the month, Jupiter will join the SE sky around 8:30 and then by 11:30 Mars will follow it: Jupiter will rise almost 2 hours earlier by month's end, as each day that passes changes Earth's position in its orbit by 0.98 degrees, which is about 4 minutes of "solar time" (the kind we live by). So 30 days is about 120 minutes of "earlier" for a given star's rising. Jupiter's no star, but it doesn't move all that fast in its orbit, so that's about right. Mars, on the other hand, can move fairly fast from Earth's point of view depending on where we are in our relative orbits: at the start of the month, it will be rising nearly 3 hours later than Jupiter and will be about 4 hours after Jupiter's rise as the month winds to its end.



The Stars of Summer Still Transitioning to the Stars of Winter: Summer Triangle to Winter Hexagon


On any evening – from now through the end of fall – you'll be able to spot the famous Summer Triangle just after dark, which at our latitude passes practically overhead at its highest point: but it will gradually get a little closer to the western horizon just after sunset each evening. Made of the brightest star in each of three constellations, it's an easy-to-see large triangle in our summer-to-late-fall skies.


The three bright stars are (from west to east to southernmost): Vega in the constellation Lyra (the Lyre), Deneb in the constellation Cygnus (the Swan), and Altair in the constellation Aquila (the Eagle). Each star will rise a few minutes earlier each day, so the Summer Triangle will start each night just a bit farther to the west than it was at the same time the night before.


However, by the 5th just after 11:30, you will see the bright stars of winter above your eastern horizon, with the constellations Orion (with bright stars Betelgeuse and Rigel) and Taurus (with brilliant Aldebaran), followed by Orion's two famous hunting dogs, the bright "dog stars," Sirius (in Canis Major) and Procyon (in Canis Minor), plus Castor and Pollux in Gemini, and Capella - the bright star in Auriga. Six bright winter stars surround Betelgeuse [pronounced BEEtle-juice] in what is nicknamed the Winter Hexagon. These will also be visible 4 minutes earlier each night, so by 9:30 pm by month's end.


Planetarium


Each day we are open, we show two different planetarium shows, and odd day shows are different from even-day shows, so there are four different shows each month that alternate. On Sundays (the "Science Sundays" extra show), there's an additional "audience choice" show at 3:15, and typically on the First Sunday of each month we have a Sensory Sunday special show at 10:30 am, so you have the potential to see nine different shows in the course of the month. The whole nature center, planetarium, butterfly aviary, raptor aviary and trails complex is open six days per week, closed Mondays. This month, from November 8-22, there are also LASER SHOWS, so do check those out. Hoping to see you soon at the Center!


-- Heather Preston, Planetarium Director

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