Sky & Telescope - November 2020 - 45

Under the Stars by Fred Schaaf

Shine On
With Firsts
and Bests
Come get your share of
the November night sky.
Why in the world are we here?
Surely not to live in pain and fear
And why on earth are you there
When you're everywhere,
Come and get your share.
And we all shine on
Like the moon, and the stars, and the sun.
Yes, we all shine on,
Everyone.
- From the song Instant Karma
by John Lennon

A K IR A FUJII

I

n February, 1970, two months before
the Beatles break-up became public, John Lennon composed, recorded,
and released his song Instant Karma
in just 10 days. Fifty years later, the
song seems especially relevant with the
world in the grip of a pandemic and the
U.S. experiencing social and political
upheaval once again.
Of course, the main astronomical
reference in the song is the repeated
chorus about humankind shining on
"like the moon, and the stars, and the
sun." It strikes me as at least a cousin
to Carl Sagan's famous Cosmos comment, "We're made of star-stuff," and
poet Walt Whitman's Songs of Myself
line about a blade of grass being "the
journeywork of the stars." But there's
another section of the Lennon song that
suggests an intimate link between us
and all parts of the universe
A month of ﬁrsts and bests. Before
we get to that link, however, let's consider the many ﬁrst sights that make
mid-November evenings special. The
time we want to focus on is 0h sidereal
time. That's when the 0h line of RA
(the one that passes through the vernal

equinox point) is on the meridian. This
happens at about 9:15 p.m. as November starts and about 7:15 p.m. as the
month ends (both given in standard
time). This year a spectacular, colorful,
and very bright interloper is nearby. I'm
talking of course about Mars, which
is only a few weeks removed from its
maximum brightness, on October 6th.
The Red Planet spends November near
the 1h line of RA, meaning it transits
roughly one hour later than the times
mentioned above.
For most of this magazine's readers
the change from daylight-saving time
to standard time happens on the ﬁrst
Sunday of November, which this year
falls on the 1st. And this means that
November is the month when sunsets
suddenly happen one hour earlier on the
clock. That also means the sky ﬁlls with
stars an hour earlier too - including the
mighty constellations of the winter sky.
At 0h sidereal time mid-month
Orion's Belt is making its majestic rise
as a vertical line of three stars exactly
due east. High in the north, the westernmost stars in Cassiopeia's W pattern
are reaching the meridian. This is also
the time for an important ﬁrst below
Polaris: The Big Dipper is reaching its
lower culmination. So, the most famous
asterism is due north at the same time
the brightest constellation is due east.

High in the south, the trailing
edge of the Great Square of Pegasus is
near the meridian. Low in the south,
1st-magnitude Fomalhaut (in Piscis
Austrinus) and 2nd-magnitude Diphda
(also known as Deneb Kaitos, in Cetus)
straddle the meridian. Facing due
west, the Summer Triangle is still high
enough for good viewing, but the Vegato-Altair line is parallel to the horizon.
What's best for viewing at this hour?
Galaxies M31 (in Andromeda) and M33
(in Triangulum) are near the zenith,
and Taurus's Pleiades and Hyades clusters are ascending in the east along with
the Double Cluster in Perseus.
When you're everywhere. In Instant
Karma, Lennon sings "why on earth are
you there, when you're everywhere."
What's the cosmic connection? Think
of it this way. You're "everywhere" (or
at least many places at once) when you
view the November evening sky and
take in sights that span vast distances
- from Mars within our own solar
system, all the way out to the Andromeda Galaxy some 2.5 million light-years
away. In this context, seeing everywhere
is the closest thing to being everywhere,
and a ﬁne way to "get your share" of the
universe surrounding us.
¢ FRED SCHAAF welcomes your letters
and comments at fschaaf@aol.com.

WINTER RISING Orion, winter's iconic constellation, clears the eastern horizon at
roughly 0h sidereal time on November evenings.

sk yandtelescope.org * NOVEMBER 2 02 0

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Sky & Telescope - November 2020

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