Jared May: What's Up November 7 - November 14, 2021

What’s Up This Second Week of November

This week will be starting on a strong note – there will be many clear nights over the next several days. On top of that, there will be a spike in the temperature so the next few nights will be around 50° during prime stargazing hours. Sunset this week occurs around 5:25 PM (due to the time change on Sunday). This clear week be on the lookout for stray meteors, the moon nearing Venus and Saturn, an inner-planet conjunction, a bright helix in the sky, and lots of clusters.

Friday was, technically, the peak of the Southern Taurids meteor shower, but this meteor shower will continue for another two weeks. This is a smaller meteor shower producing only about five meteors per hour (compare that with the Perseid’s 60 per hour) at its best. There is a catch though – these meteors are slightly larger than average (the typical meteor you see is likely no larger than a grain of sand). This leads to more and larger fireballs in the sky. So, while there may be very few meteors, they may, every once in a while, be much brighter!

The moon is just leaving its new moon phase. As it creeps through its early waxing crescent phase, the moon will meet with Venus low in the western skies just after sunset. The best time to see this will be Sunday, November 7th. A pair of binoculars will easily be able to resolve Venus (the brightest object in the sky after the sun and moon) and the thin 13% illuminated moon. Later in the week as the moon creeps further west it will meet with Saturn. Thursday and Friday (November 9th and 10th) will be the best days to see the moon in this region of the sky. Binoculars will once again be fine for seeing these two objects.

The moon will meet Venus early this week.

On Friday November 10th, during the narrow window between 6:30 AM and 7 AM, turn your binoculars east and spot a pair of bright dots just a few degrees above the horizon. This pair is actually the conjunction of Mercury and Mars. The window for this event is so small since these two planets are located so relatively close to the sun and as the sun rises it will wash out the sky rendering Mars and Mercury invisible.

Mercury and Mars will be in the morning twilight this week.

Anytime this week, grab a telescope and look south around 7 PM and locate the Helix Nebula. It will make the third point on a triangle with Jupiter and Saturn as the other corners. This nebula shines at magnitude 7.6, so it is too faint (and small) to see with the naked eye. Since this nebula is small but is relatively bright, it has “high surface brightness”. This makes it a contrasty object that can stand out against the black background. Through a telescope, this nebula will likely only appear as a faint smudge, but just know that the “faint smudge” is in fact light coming from ionized gases being blown off of a star 650 light-years away that was much like our sun a few thousand years ago.

The Helix Nebula is one of the largest and closest of the so-called “Planetary Nebulae”. Its ghostly ring shape can be discerned in a small scope under very clear, dark, skies.

There is no particular “season” for observing star clusters (unlike “galaxy season” which tends to be in the spring months). There are always tons of star clusters in the sky at any given time – and lots of different types too: open clusters, globular clusters, clusters with surrounding emission nebulae, and clusters with surrounding reflection nebulae (like the Pleiades). Look in the eastern sky with a telescope or hop around with binoculars and you will find a field of clusters. Most of these shine at magnitude 6-8.5 and some are very large (like the Pleiades) and some are very small (like any distant globular cluster).

A map showing a sampling of some of the star clusters visible in the northeastern evening sky this motnh.

Get outside and enjoy the warmer night temperatures. These next few nights will likely be the last “warm” nights for the next several months. Lose yourself among the stars or bring some friends along stargazing and share your excitement of the cosmos with them. Staring at the stars is a sure way to humble oneself – realizing how small and insignificant we all are. This week try spotting the young moon and Venus or the older moon with Saturn, some sparse but bright meteors, a Mercury-Mars conjunction, the Helix Nebula, and the massive field of clusters right above our heads.

Clear Skies!