To see a exact view out of your location, strive Stellarium Online.
Moon and Spica
The outdated waning crescent moon can information you to the brilliant star Spica on the mornings of November 20 and 21, 2022. A superb time to look is roughly an hour earlier than dawn.
By the best way, in case you are up early the next day, November twenty second, search for a really slender outdated crescent moon close to the horizon. November 23 is the new moon, and the start of the subsequent lunar cycle.
Additionally, look ahead to beautiful earthshine illuminating the darkish aspect of the moon.
Spica is the brightest star in Virgo
Spica is the brightest star within the constellation Virgo the Maiden. It’s positioned 260 light-years away and seems to us on Earth as a single bluish-white star. It shines at magnitude +1.04.
Nevertheless, Spica is a pair of blue large stars. Each stars are bigger and warmer than our sun, and so they’re separated by solely 11 million miles (practically 18 million km). In actual fact, Spica’s two stars are so shut, and so they orbit so shortly round one another, that their mutual gravity distorts every star into an egg form. You’d have to take a look at the celebs’ spectra to even know that there are two of them and never one.
Spica is likely one of the hottest 1st-magnitude stars. The most well liked of the pair is 22,400 Kelvin (about 40,000 F or 22,000 C). That’s scorching in distinction to the sun’s 5,800 Kelvin (about 10,000 F or 5,500 C). By the best way, this star would possibly sometime explode as a Type II supernova.
Backside line: Catch the outdated crescent moon by Spica earlier than dawn on November 20 and 21, 2022. In case you are fortunate, chances are you’ll discover the attractive glow of earthshine on the skinny crescent moon.
For more great observing events in the coming weeks, visit EarthSky’s night sky guide
