Wednesday, November 23
New Moon happens at 5:57 P.M. EST, giving us darkish skies for the complete evening.
The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is a showpiece of the evening sky. Right now of yr, it’s already excessive within the east by midevening and, on chilly, clear nights, might be seen to the bare eye in case your observing website is freed from gentle air pollution. It is without doubt one of the most distant objects you may see with the bare eye, rivaled solely by the Triangulum Galaxy (M33), which solely the sharpest eyes can choose up from the darkest websites.
You will discover Andromeda slightly below 1.5° west of magnitude 4.5 Nu (ν) Andromedae. The massive spiral galaxy stretches some 3° on the sky, or the width of three Full Moons! Nonetheless, you might not fairly see it to this extent, just because its outskirts are dimmer than its central areas (the bulge). With a telescope, it would largely appear like a dim, fuzzy, white-gray patch of sunshine that’s brighter within the heart. With a 4-inch scope or bigger, you’ll begin to discover variations in the best way the galaxy’s gentle fades as you look farther from the middle, because of its orientation in addition to a darkish dust lane blocking a few of its starlight.
Andromeda is the closest massive spiral to our personal and the most important galaxy in our Native Group. It’s also headed for a collision with the Milky Way in a number of billion years — although happily, only a few stars will truly collide as the 2 galaxies merge into one bigger construction astronomers name Milkomeda.
Dawn: 6:54 A.M.
Sundown: 4:38 P.M.
Moonrise: 6:33 A.M.
Moonset: 4:23 P.M.
Moon Section: New
Thursday, November 24
The mighty planet Jupiter is stationary in the present day at 8 A.M. EST. Positioned in southern Pisces, the gas giant has been shifting retrograde towards the background stars; after in the present day, it would start shifting east as soon as extra. You will discover the magnitude –2.6 world within the southeast as quickly because it will get darkish after sundown, hanging under Pisces’ Circlet asterism.
That is one planet you’ll wish to examine with a scope. Early within the night, you would possibly catch Io transiting throughout the gas giant’s face, beginning round 6:30 P.M. EST (in darkness for these on the East Coast and twilight for these within the Midwest). By about 7:50 P.M. EST, the moon’s shadow joins it, reaching about halfway throughout the disk as Io leaves the limb simply earlier than 8:50 P.M. EST. The shadow lastly slips away round 10 P.M. EST.
In the meantime, Jupiter’s coloured cloud bands are beautiful to watch, as its disk spans some 44″ on the sky. Look additionally for its Nice Crimson Spot, which ought to seem by 11 P.M. EST, carried rapidly throughout the face of the planet by the world’s speedy rotation price.
Asteroid 2 Pallas can be stationary at 8 A.M. EST. It’s situated close to the tail of Canis Main, the bigger of Orion’s two searching canine. We’ll go to it tomorrow morning when the constellation is highest.
Dawn: 6:55 A.M.
Sundown: 4:38 P.M.
Moonrise: 7:51 A.M.
Moonset: 5:08 P.M.
Moon Section: Waxing crescent (1%)
Friday, November 25
Though Canis Main rises earlier than midnight, it wants a while to climb out of the turbulent air close to the horizon. Within the a number of hours earlier than dawn, you’ll discover this loyal canine southeast of Orion and skimming above the southern horizon. Pallas, which glows at eighth magnitude, is simply 2.5° southeast of magnitude 1.8 Delta Canis Majoris, additionally referred to as Wezen. You possibly can catch the main-belt world with binoculars or a small scope.
The second asteroid ever found, Pallas is the third-largest physique in the principle belt and takes simply over 4 and a half years to orbit the Solar. Over the following month, Pallas will proceed shifting away from Canis Main’s tail, making a sluggish arc towards his again legs and ending December close to Kappa (κ) Canis Majoris.
The Moon reaches perigee, the closest level in its orbit round Earth, at 8:31 P.M. EST. It’ll then sit 225,450 miles (362,827 kilometers) away.
Dawn: 6:56 A.M.
Sundown: 4:37 P.M.
Moonrise: 9:07 A.M.
Moonset: 6:04 P.M.
Moon Section: Waxing crescent (5%)
