 Use binoculars to try for this lineup not long after sunset. The visibility of objects in bright twilight is exaggerated here.
Friday, Nov. 11 Spot Venus low in the
southwest in bright twilight, and then little Mercury 2° beneath it. Use
binoculars to try for twinkly Antares, even fainter, below Mercury as
shown here. Much easier: binoculars show the Pleiades
above the bright waning gibbous Moon in the east after dark. Below the
Moon, Aldebaran sparkles orange.
Saturday, Nov. 12 Jupiter's satellite Io
crosses Jupiter's face from 8:15 to 10:24 p.m. EST, followed by Io's
tiny black shadow (easier to see in a telescope) from 8:39 to 10:49 p.m.
EST. Meanwhile, Jupiter's Great Red Spot transits the planet's central
meridian around 8:21 p.m. EST. (For listings of all Red Spot transits
and events among Jupiter's moons this month, visible worldwide, see "The
Jupiter Watch" in the November Sky & Telescope, page 54.)
Sunday, Nov. 13 The Great Andromeda Galaxy,
M31, crosses near your zenith in mid-evening if you're in the
mid-northern latitudes. The exact time (sometime around 9 p.m. this
week) depends on how far east or west you are in your time zone. Lie on
the ground with binoculars, look straight up, and examine the sky just
off Andromeda's upraised knee for a dim little elongated glow among the
pinpoint stars.
To piece out the Andromeda constellation, use the monthly evening sky map in the center of Sky & Telescope. Or, the galaxy is just below the "E" in "Andromeda" on the chart farther below.
Io reappears from eclipse out of Jupiter's shadow around 8:08 p.m.
Eastern Standard Time. With a small telescope, you can watch it
gradually swell into view just off Jupiter's eastern limb.
Monday, Nov. 14 The two brightest points on
the eastern side of the sky are Jupiter, high in the southeast, and
Capella, in the northeast. Find the midpoint between them, and look just
below that for the little Pleiades star cluster. The Pleiades are the
size of your fingertip at arm's length. Ganymede,
Jupiter's biggest moon, crosses the face of the planet from 7:13 to 8:46
p.m. EST. Then Ganymede's tiny black shadow, easier to see, crosses the
planet from 8:50 to 10:45 p.m. EST.
Tuesday, Nov. 15 The two brightest stars in
the November evening sky are Vega in the west-northwest and Capella in
the northeast. Sometime around 8 p.m. tonight, depending on your
location, they will be at precisely the same height. How accurately can
you time this event? Welcome to medieval astronomy.
Wednesday, Nov. 16 All star atlases show
the loose open cluster M39 in Cygnus, which is high in the west these
evenings. But what about the "finger of darkness" nearby: the long dark
nebula Barnard 168? "Under good (though not pristine) skies," writes
Gary Seronik, even his image-stabilized 10×30 binoculars "suffice to
show the dark nebula quite well." It's east of M39, about 3° long, and
runs east-west. See his Binocular Highlights column and chart in the November Sky & Telescope, page 45.
Thursday, Nov. 17 The bright eclipsing
variable star Algol should be in one of its periodic dimmings, magnitude
3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple hours centered on 10:13 p.m.
EST (7:13 p.m. PST). Algol takes several additional hours to fade and
to rebrighten. The chart below gives the magnitudes of three stars near
Algol. Memorize them, and you can use them forever after to judge
Algol's changing brightness.
 Algol
(Beta Persei) was the first eclipsing variable star discovered. Good
comparison stars are Gamma Andromedae to its west, magnitude 2.1, and
Epsilon Persei to its east, magnitude 2.9.
. The modest Leonid meteor shower should be most
active in the hours before dawn Friday morning. Last-quarter moonlight
will interfere somewhat.
Friday, Nov. 18 Last-quarter Moon (exact at 10:09 a.m. EST). The Moon shines near Mars and Regulus this morning and tomorrow morning.
Saturday, Nov. 19 Jupiter's moon Io crosses
the face of the planet tonight from 10:00 p.m. to 12:09 a.m. EST, with
its tiny black shadow following 34 minutes behind. (Subtract 3 hours to
get PST.)
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