November
Venus is beginning to move into a darker sky as it pulls clear of the twilight glow and closes in on Jupiter during November. The phase looks gibbous in a small telescope and becomes less fat as the month slips by.
Jupiter continues to plod along through Sagittarius and the brightness declines just a notch from –2.1 to –2.0 by the end of the month. A point to note is that when Jupiter sets around 20h mid-November the sky is bereft of a naked-eye planet until Saturn rises at 01h 30m.
The Ringed Planet dallies near the Leo-Virgo border and maintains a steady magnitude 1.1 throughout November. Take the opportunity to observe the planet through a telescope and watch it’s moons line up with the ring plane. November 15th sees a number of them arranged like pearls on a string.
Saturn has the majority of the time after the witching hour to itself until Mercury comes into view 90 minutes ahead of the Sun on November 1st when it glimmers at magnitude -0.9 above the eastern horizon. The fleet-footed little world remains on view for 10 days of the month (the brightness declining also) before diving back towards the solar glare.
Mars is not visible this month.
1 PM: Venus lies 5° from the Moon
3 PM: Jupiter lies 2.5° from the Moon
5 S. Taurid meteor shower peaks
6 Occultation of Neptune by the Moon
9 Minor planet 9 Metis at opposition
12 N. Taurid meteor shower peaks
13 Occultation of the Pleiades by the Moon
17 Leonid meteor shower peaks
22 Alpha-Monocerotid meteor shower peaks
25 Mercury at superior conjunction