Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - 42

OBSERVING

Sun, Moon & Planets

The Morning Show
Early risers will enjoy the best views of November's solar system happenings.
Saturn sinks out of view into the Sun's
afterglow during November, leaving the
entire evening devoid of bright planets.
Before and during dawn, however, there
is one last close, spectacular conjunction
of 2015 - between Venus and Mars -
and then a majestic, steadily lengthening
line of Regulus, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and
Spica, visited by the waning Moon early
in the month.

(β) Scorpii (magnitudes 2.6 and 4.9)
about a degree from Saturn (magnitude
0.5). More challenging to glimpse in a
bright sky is the very wide double Nu (ν)
Scorpii (magnitudes 4.0 and 6.3), which
is only about 2′ south of Saturn on the
American evening of November 7th.
Saturn will be lost from view in midNovember. It goes through conjunction
with the Sun on November 30th.

DUSK

EVENING

Saturn starts November setting less
than 1½ hours after the Sun; look for it
extremely low in the southwest in twilight. Don't confuse Saturn with twinkling Antares about 9° to its left; binoculars will help your view.
Telescopes won't show a sharp
image of a planet so close to the horizon, but under good conditions they
should reveal the wide double star Beta

Even right after dusk, Pluto is too low
now to be worth hunting. But we can note
with mental interest that the dim, distant
world passes remarkably close to - less
than 1′ north of - Xi2 (ξ2) Sagittarii,
the 3.5-magnitude tip of the Sagittarius
Teaspoon, on November 14th.
Neptune, in Aquarius, is highest in
the south soon after evening twilight
ends; Uranus, in Pisces, a few hours

Dawn, Nov 8 -10

Dawn, Nov 5 -7

30 minutes before sunrise

1 hour before sunrise

Mars

10°

LEO

Venus

γ
aVir
Regulus

Moon
Nov 5
Denebola

Moon
Nov 9

Jupiter

Spica

Moon
Nov 6
Mars
Venus

Moon
Nov 10

Moon
Nov 7

Looking Southeast, high in the sky

42

Moon
Nov 8

November 2015 sky & telescope

Looking East-Southeast

before midnight. Finder charts for them
are in the September issue, page 48, and
at skypub.com/urnep.

MIDNIGHT TO DAWN
Jupiter rises in the east just after 3 a.m.,
followed by bright Venus and little Mars
about a half hour later as the month
begins. The three planets glowed together
at the end of October, but Venus and Mars
are moving away from Jupiter now and
engaging in a quite close conjunction with
each other. From November 2nd through
5th, they shine within 1° of each other,
Venus blazing at magnitude -4.5 and
Mars gleaming at only magnitude 1.7. The
two come closest together on the morning
of November 3rd, when Venus is just 0.7°
south-southwest (lower left) of Mars. On
these close mornings, a medium-power
telescopic ﬁeld of view can contain both
Venus, about 22″ wide and 55% lit, and
Mars, only 4.3″ wide and 95% lit.
During November the line connecting Jupiter, Mars, and Venus lengthens
from about 6° long to more than 30°. By
month's end, Mars is about 20° lower
left of Jupiter and Venus about 14° lower
left of Mars. Venus and Mars have their
early-November conjunction at the border
of Leo and Virgo and during the rest of
the month move deeper into the latter
constellation, decreasing the gap between
themselves and Spica. Venus passes about
0.4° from 3.6-magnitude Beta Virginis on
November 6th and blazes less than 0.2°
from Eta (η) Virginis on the morning
of November 13th. Mars makes its own
close approach to Eta Virginis on the 21st,
Scenes are drawn for the middle of North
America (latitude 40° north, longitude 90°
west); European observers should move each
Moon symbol a quarter of the way toward the
one for the previous date. For clarity, the Moon
is shown three times its actual apparent size.
http://www.skypub.com/urnep
Sky and Telescope - November 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky and Telescope - November 2015
