What's in the Sky: November night skies

Remember to “fall back” on Nov. 2 when daylight savings time ends.

November’s full Moon will occur on the 5th, with new Moon following on the 19th. On the first of November, you’ll find the Moon just to the right of Saturn in the southern sky, a great way to pick up Saturn. On the 10th, the Moon will be just to the left of Jupiter in the morning sky. A waning crescent Moon will make a nice sight just below the constellation Leo on the morning of Nov. 13. The Moon will return to the evening sky late in the month. Look for a nice crescent Moon low in the south on the 26th. The Moon will again be near Saturn on the 28th and 29th.

Saturn will remain in great position to see in November, the brightest “star” you see low in the south. You may be able to note its pale-yellow color. With a telescope, you can see that the famous rings are still “edge-on”, seen only as a thin line along Saturn’s equator.

Jupiter will re-enter the evening sky late in November, very low in the east. Jupiter is still mainly a morning object.

Other than Saturn and Jupiter, November is not a good month to view the planets. Venus, Mars, and Mercury are all lost in the Sun’s glare.

November is the month of a famous meteor shower, the Leonids. The best time to see them is the early morning hours of November 17 and 18, or the evening hours of the 17th. Look for 10-15 meteors per hour at the peak.

The Leonids are famous for some intense meteor storms. The parent comet is Tempel-Tuttle, which orbits the Sun about every 33 years. Like all comets, it leaves a dusty trail that the Earth encounters at the same time every year, resulting in the meteor shower as particles fall into our atmosphere and burn up. When we encounter the densest area of Tempel-Tuttle debris, every 33 years, we get a more intense meteor shower. At times, the Leonids have been so intense they have caused incredible meteor storms. In 1833, an intense Leonid storm is estimated to have had 50,000 to 150,000 meteors per hour! People were in awe, and some thought the world was coming to an end.

The 1833 storm was viewed by future US President Abraham Lincoln in Illinois. Lincoln related his experience years later, in an anecdote he related during one of the darkest times of the American Civil War. The anecdote is mentioned in the collected works of Walt Whitman, who lived in Washington during the Civil War. Per Whitman, Lincoln related “When I was a young man in Illinois, I boarded for a time with a Deacon of the Presbyterian Church. One night I was roused from my sleep by a rap at the door. I heard the Deacon’s voice exclaiming ‘arise Abraham, the day of judgement has come’. I sprang from my bed and rushed to the window and saw the stars falling in great showers. But looking back of them in the heavens I saw the great old constellations with which I was well acquainted, fixed and true in their places. Gentlemen, the world did not come to an end then, nor will the Union now.”

Enjoy November’s dark skies!