Sky & Telescope - November 2020 - 44

NOVEMBER 2020 OBSERVING
Planetary Almanac

PLANET VISIBILITY (40°N, naked-eye, approximate) Mercury: visible at dawn from the 2nd
to the 29th * Venus: serves as the brilliant Morning Star all month * Mars: transits the meridian in the
evening and sets before dawn * Jupiter: visible at dusk all month * Saturn: culminates around sunset

Mercury

November Sun & Planets
11

30

21

Venus

Date

Right Ascension

Declination

Elongation

Magnitude

Diameter

Illumination

Distance

1

14h 25.4m

-14° 25ƍ

-

-26.8

32ƍ 14″

-

0.992

30

16h 24.7m

-21° 38ƍ

-

-26.8

32ƍ 26″

-

0.986

1

13h

39.3m

-9° 09ƍ

12° Mo

+1.6

9.0″

14%

0.748

11

13h 54.2m

-9° 16ƍ

19° Mo

-0.6

6.7″

60%

1.001

21

14h 44.5m

-14° 09ƍ

16° Mo

-0.7

5.5″

86%

1.225

30

15h 39.0m

-18° 48ƍ

11° Mo

-0.7

5.0″

95%

1.355

1

12h

19.0m

-0° 19ƍ

34° Mo

-4.0

13.1″

81%

1.271

11

13h

04.3m

-4° 57ƍ

32° Mo

-3.9

12.6″

84%

1.328

21

13h 50.5m

-9° 29ƍ

30° Mo

-3.9

12.1″

86%

1.381

30

14h 33.2m

-13° 17ƍ

28° Mo

-3.9

11.7″

88%

1.426

1

1h

01.9m

+4° 43ƍ

157° Ev

-2.1

20.1″

98%

0.467

16

0h

56.4m

+5° 10ƍ

141° Ev

-1.6

17.3″

95%

0.542

30

1h

01.2m

+6° 26ƍ

129° Ev

-1.2

14.8″

93%

0.634

1

19h 30.1m

-22° 17ƍ

72° Ev

-2.2

37.0″

99%

5.335

30

19h 50.9m

-21° 28ƍ

48° Ev

-2.0

34.5″

99%

5.718

1

19h 52.0m

-21° 17ƍ

77° Ev

+0.6

16.3″

100%

10.169

30

20h

00.8m

-20° 54ƍ

50° Ev

+0.6

15.7″

100%

10.596

Uranus

16

2h

22.3m

+13° 39ƍ

164° Ev

+5.7

3.7″

100%

18.826

Neptune

16

23h 17.3m

-5° 47ƍ

114° Ev

+7.9

2.3″

100%

29.510

Sun

Mercury
1

16

30

Mars

Venus
1

16

30

Jupiter

Mars

Jupiter

16
Saturn

Saturn
16
Uranus
Neptune

The table above gives each object's right ascension and declination (equinox 2000.0) at 0h Universal Time on selected dates,
and its elongation from the Sun in the morning (Mo) or evening (Ev) sky. Next are the visual magnitude and equatorial diameter.
(Saturn's ring extent is 2.27 times its equatorial diameter.) Last are the percentage of a planet's disk illuminated by the Sun and
the distance from Earth in astronomical units. (Based on the mean Earth-Sun distance, 1 a.u. is 149,597,871 kilometers, or
92,955,807 international miles.) For other dates, see skyandtelescope.org.

10"

PLANET DISKS have south up, to match the
view in many telescopes. Blue ticks indicate the
pole currently tilted toward Earth.
14h
RIGHT

+40°

10 h

12h
ASCENSION

+30°
BOÖTES

8h
Castor
Pollux

Arcturus

11

+10°
VIRGO
0°

IC
IPT
ECL CANCER
Regulus

PEGASUS
HERCULES

Uranus

E Q U AT O R

OPHIUCHUS

E R ID AN U S
CANIS
MAJOR

-30°

8 am

6 am

4 am

2 am

0°

Neptune AQ U AR IU S
AQ U IL A

Sirius

+20°
+10°

Mars
25
Rigel

H Y D R A

10 am

+30°

CYGNUS

ARIES

Betelgeuse

CORVUS

16 h

18 h

20 h

PISCES

ORION

LIBRA

- 40°

Nov
29- 30

Procyon

Spica

22h

0h

2h

Vega

TA U R U S

Venus

-10°

4h

6h

5 Pleiades

8

LEO

+20°

GEMINI

D E C L I N AT I O N

Nov 1

21

CETUS

-10°

Jupiter
Saturn

Fomalhaut

LOCAL TIME OF TRANSIT
10 pm
Midnight

C APR IC O R N U S

18
SAGITTARIUS

8 pm

6 pm

4 pm

Antares
-30°
SCORPIUS
2 pm
-40°

The Sun and planets are positioned for mid-November; the colored arrows show the motion of each during the month. The Moon is plotted for evening dates in the Americas when it's waxing (right
side illuminated) or full, and for morning dates when it's waning (left side). "Local time of transit" tells when (in Local Mean Time) objects cross the meridian - that is, when they appear due south and
at their highest - at mid-month. Transits occur an hour later on the 1st, and an hour earlier at month's end.

44

NOVEMBER 2 02 0 * SK Y & TELESCOPE
http://www.skyandtelescope.org
Sky & Telescope - November 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - November 2020
