Nakaw Mula Sa www.skypub.com --- The Night Sky in November
LOOK SOUTH on November evenings this year, and you'll see that the bright "Autumn Star," Fomalhaut, is not the leading light in this part of the heavens as it is most Novembers. Its glory is stolen by a much more radiant beacon high above it: the planet Jupiter. Their arrangement can be seen on this month's all-sky map.
But Jupiter is just passing through. It moves eastward around the zodiac by one constellation per year, and in a few years it will leave the autumn sky altogether. So the sky-time depicted on the map is still best named the "Fomalhaut Hour" for the lonely, bright star in the south.
We could call this time the Square Hour instead, because now is also when the Great Square of Pegasus is highest in the south. But Pegasus makes a long annual flight across the sky, a high journey that keeps it in good view for Northern Hemisphere starwatchers from late summer to early winter. In contrast, Fomalhaut follows only a short, brief arc across the south. So it's much more characteristic of November.
Meanwhile, the northeast and east offer us the bright constellations from the Perseus myth quite high, and the first of the classic constellations of winter down low.
Pegasus is supposed to represent the front half of a flying horse. He is upside down when we see him high in the south. The Great Square is his body, and his long neck stretches westward to his nose star, Enif or Epsilon Pegasi.
Turning to face northeast, we see Perseus as a noble curve of bright stars above low Auriga, the Charioteer, with its bright sun Capella. The main curve of Perseus points rightward to that charming little teacup-shaped group of stars in the east, the Pleiades star cluster.
Underneath the Pleiades is the larger Hyades cluster in Taurus, the Bull. It looks like an arrowhead pointing right. Accompanying the Hyades is the much closer and brighter star Aldebaran.
You'll also enjoy the little patterns of Aries, the Ram, and fainter Triangulum, the Triangle, high in the east, as well as the royal pair of bright Cassiopeia the Queen and dim Cepheus the King high in the north.
EVENT CALENDAR (Oct 28 to Nov 10)
| October 28 |
11:27 GMT |
18:34 Jakarta |
19:31 Manila |
20:46 Tokyo |
First Quarter |
| October 29 |
19:58 GMT
(Oct 28) |
03:05 Jakarta |
04:02 Manila |
05:17 Tokyo |
Superior Conjunction of Venus (below horizon) |
| October 30 |
| | | |
χ Cygni at maximum brightness
(variable star with period of 408 days
and magnitude ranging from 14.2 to 3.3)
<watch the star slowly fade every day> |
| November 1 |
15:57 GMT
(October 31) |
00:10 to 01:12
Jakarta |
01:38 to 02:29
Manila |
01:16 Tokyo |
Moon passes 00°14' south of Jupiter (Tokyo)
Occultation of Jupiter (Saturday night)
-- Moon altitude: 36° at entry, 21° at exit (Jakarta)
-- Moon altitude: 12.5° at entry, 1° at exit (Manila) |
| November 3 |
after midnight |
| | |
Taurid meteor shower (south radiant) peak
(shower period is from mid-October to end of Nov)
<not very interesting> |
| November 3 |
08:52 GMT |
15:59 Jakarta
(below horizon/
Sun) |
16:56 Manila
(Sun) |
18:11 Tokyo |
Moon passes 01°43' south of Saturn (altitude 21° in Tokyo) |
| November 4 |
~01hr GMT |
| | |
Moon at closest point to Earth for 1998AD (356,611 km) |
| November 4 |
04:59 GMT |
12:06 Jakarta |
13:03 Manila |
14:18 Tokyo |
Full Moon (Hunter's Moon) |
| November 6 |
~02hr GMT | | | |
Occultation of Aldebaran
(Visible from northwestern South America to southern Greenland
through London and Paris up to the Middle East)
Occultation of the asteroid Ceres (visible in western Europe) |
| November 7 |
14:49 GMT |
21:56 Jakarta |
22:53 Manila |
24:08 Tokyo |
立冬 (Sun at 15hr right ascension) <ShiftJIS encoded> |
| November 10 |
| | | |
R Leonis at maximum brightness
(variable star with period of 310 days
and magnitude ranging from 11.3 to 4.4) |
| Tokyo Sunrise: | 05:59 | Manila Sunrise: | 05:50 | Jakarta Sunrise: | 05:28 |
| Tokyo Sunset: | 16:51 | Manila Sunset: | 17:30 | Jakarta Sunset: | 17:46 |
| Tokyo Day Length: | 10hr52min |
| Manila Day Length: | 11hr40min |
| Jakarta Day Length: | 12hr18min |
