Skywatch November 2002

These scripts are written by members of the Albany Area Amateur Astronomers and read by the staff of the Dudley Observatory. All scripts are copyright and may not be reproduced without permission of the writer and the Dudley Observatory. Scripts are published to the web in the week following their recording. Daily scripts may be heard by calling 518-382-7584 after 5pm.

 

 NOTE: Times given in the scripts are all local Schenectady, New York time.

Friday, November 1st to Sunday, November 3rd. Written by George Mileski

The moon is a thin crescent, on Monday the moon will be new. If you get up one hour before sunrise on Saturday you will see Mars 4 degrees south of the moon. On Sunday one hour before sunrise the old moon, a very thin crescent is next to Spica, the brightest star in Virgo, the virgin. Spica is to the lower right of the moon and Mars is to the upper right of the moon. In about another week or so, Venus will be making its appearance in the morning sky. Venus was at inferior conjunction on the 31st of October. At this time three planets can be seen in the sky, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, Venus will be visible in about a week just before sunrise. Jupiter rises about 11:30PM, it sits in the constellation Cancer the crab. You can actually see the four moons of Jupiter using binoculars, however you will need a tripod for this. Hand-held binoculars are impossible to hold steady enough to see these Jovian satellites. 

One of the constellations you will find in the evening sky is pisces, the fish. Pisces claims a special point in our coordinate system - a point where the sun crosses the celestial equator, while moving into the Northern hemisphere, known as the spring or vernal equinox. This point is also called the first point of Aries and is the zero point for measurement of right ascension, the "longitude" scale of the sky. Since it has drifted into Pisces, it should really be called the first point of Pisces. But historial continuity maintains the traditional phase. The point drifts due to precession, the phenomenon that causes earth to wobble on its axis like a spinning top. One wobble takes 25,800 years and changes the pole star over the centuries.  

The Andromeda Galaxy or M31 passes high overhead. This galaxy can be seen by naked eye and of course with binoculars. It is the only galaxy that can be seen with the naked eye. This galaxy is about two million light-years away and its headed our way. Right now it looks like a hazy mass, I wonder what it will look like in a billion years?  

Monday, November 4th. Written by Joseph Slomka.

The Sun sets at 4:44 PM, darkness falls at 6:20. Dawn breaks at 4:58 AM and ends with sunrise at 6:34. The Moon is in its "New " phase and will not be seen.

By Midnight, Saturn is easily identified high in the East, in the constellation Taurus. Binoculars show Saturn as an oval. Telescopes reveal the famous rings; higher powers show the rings at their almost maximum open state. Saturn is currently in retrograde. This means that the planet appears to move westward against background stars. This is on account of the relative positions of Saturn, Earth and Sun. Try to spot Saturn and note its relation to surrounding stars. In January, Saturn makes a very close encounter with the famous Crab Nebula.

Jupiter pokes through trees at midnight; by the first hints of dawn, Jupiter is quite high in East, in the constellation Cancer. Jupiter makes a good binocular object; its four famous moons are easily seen. Cancer is home to two binocular star clusters. The Beehive Cluster is visible to the naked eye and lies not too far from Jupiter.

As dawn progresses, Mars climbs higher in the East. It is still quite small in our instruments, but it will grow larger and brighter as time progresses.

At 8:00 PM, two constellations are readily visible. The Great Square of Pegasus is overhead and to the East, Perseus. Midway between the two is the sparse constellation Aries. Aries consists of three stars in a row, with the front two turned downward. Aries means "ram" and is named after the Golden Fleece of Greek Legend. This constellation has no noteworthy stars, but is important for another reason. The Spring Equinox takes place when the sun's northward path crosses the celestial equator. In ancient times, this event took place in Aries; hence this was called the "First Point of Aries." Over the ages, this circumstance has shifted westward into Pisces. However, astronomers still call the Spring Equinox the "First Point of Aries" and define it as zero right ascension, the origin point of all measurements.

Tuesday, November 5th. Written by Jonathan Cassidy.

Nights this week the nights are dark as we are with a waning moon. The new moon occurs on Monday November 4th.

Lets try to find a galaxy. Go to any place where you can get direct lights out of your eyes and look almost directly over head. You can even be under light pollution, but you must be away from direct lights. Let you eyes adjust to the darkness.

Look to the highest point in the sky, we call this the zenith. See the large square of nearly equal brightness stars with little in the square. This square is as large as your fist at arms length.

Find the north east most star of this square. Follow a line of stars to the north east going out one dim star and one bright star. At the bright star take a right turn and go north west two dim stars. Notice the fuzzy patch near the second dim star. This is the Andromeda galaxy. The largest galaxy of our local group of galaxies. This galaxy is so bright I can see it, with out a telescope, from the roof of the science building at RPI.

There is another large galaxy visible to the unaided eye near by in the night sky, but you need to observe it from an area of little or no light pollution to see it.

Wednesday, November 6th. Written by Ray Bogucki.

Evening skies in November find the Big Dipper, facing up, scraping the treetops along the northern horizon. Its fellow circumpolar constellation, Cassiopeia, with its familiar "M" or "W" shape, lies on the opposite side of Polaris and is thus now riding high above the North Star. The stars forming the "M" are fairly close to Earth and, in a dark sky, they are seen to be imbedded in the Milky Way. The winter Milky Way is considerably fainter than the bright ribbon of light running through Sagittarius, low in the south, last August. Looking toward Sagittarius, we are peering through the inner spiral arms of our galaxy, through the center and then out through all the spiral arms beyond the galactic center.

In the direction of Cassiopeia, we are looking out through the thin outer arms of our galaxy, thus through many fewer stars. Since our line of sight to Cassiopeia is in the plane of the galaxy, where new stars are born, it is no surprise that this constellation is liberally sprinkled with numerous young star clusters, recently born from the gas and dust of the spiral arms, and easily visible in a small telescope. Some of these have only appeared since the extinction of the dinosaurs on Earth.

But in the starry arms of the galaxy, stars are not only born but also die. On Nov. 11, 1572, before the advent of the telescope, the famous Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe, was studying the night sky when he was startled to find that Cassiopeia had grown a brilliant new star, brighter than Venus, just below the left side of the "M". Tycho was astonished because, at the time, the starry heavens were believed to be permanent and unchangeable. At first the star was visible in broad daylight but it diminished slowly and after 18 months, it faded from sight. The new star was a violently exploding star known as a supernova, one of the last to be observed in our own galaxy, although thousands have been recorded in other galaxies. For a short time, a supernova shines millions of times brighter than the Sun and releases enough radiation to have disastrous consequences on any life in nearby star systems.

Thursday, November 7th. Written by Peter Jennes.

Friday, November 8th to Sunday, November 10th. Written by George Mileski

The moon on Friday is a waxing crescent moon and by Monday it will have reached first quarter. On Sunday the planet Nephtune will be 5 degrees above the moon. A telescope would be the instrument of choice for finding this. Although it can be seen with binoculars on a tripod. In the morning sky, 45 minutes before sunrise, you can see Venus with the star Spica, the brightest star in Virgo the virgin above it, and Mars 8 degrees above Spica. Two other planets are visible, Jupiter and to the west is Saturn. 

In the evening sky on a clear night you can see 2.2 million light-years toward a nearby universe. What I'm referring to is the Andromeda Galaxy. Its a mighty assemblage of a few hundred billion stars in the form of a spiral galaxy like our sun. Even though the Andromeda Galaxy is 1/3 larger than our Milky Way, its vast distance reduces it to a soft naked eye-glow in our sky. This glow of light was just one of many patches of light until 1924, when Edwin Hubble made the remarkable announcement that it was not a nearby cloud of gas, but a distant galaxy, or as his contemporaries put it "an island universe". 

Today its called M31 on a list of comet-lookalikes gathered by professional comet-hunter Charles Messier in the 18th century. Finding M31 is easy, since it is high in the east and is almost overhead at sunset. Use Gamma Andromedae, also known as Almach and Alpheratz Andromedae, the star that marks the northeast corner of the Great Square in Pegasus as your markers. Move about halfway from Alpheratz to Almach and then north about 5 degrees. There you'll find M31. Under reasonably dark skies M31 looks like a gray, oval patch of light to the naked eye. From a typical city backyard you'll need binoculars to spot its hazy glow. A telescope shows a little more including satellite galaxies M32 on the galaxy's east edge and NGC 205 to the west.   

Monday, November 11th. Written by Joseph Slomka.

Tuesday, November 12th. Written by Jonathan Cassidy.

On the moon the line that separates day from night is known as the terminator. It is stark because there is no atmosphere on the moon to make a twilight like we have on earth. It is either day or night with little transition. At the terminator shadows are longest as the sun is on the lunar horizon. This makes features on the moon easier to see.

The moon is one day past first quarter tonight. It is in the constellation Aquarius. The moon tonight offers a view near the south pole of the crater "Clavius". This crater has distinct features and is one of the larger craters on the surface of the moon. Inside Clavius is a set of series impacts from an object that broke apart prior to hitting the moon. These features are best seen when near the teminator.

If you can get a clear view of the moon with almost any telescope on a steady mount you will find toward the south pole a grouping of large craters. It is in this group you can find the creater Clavius.

Watch on successive nights as the terminator creeps across the face of the moon revealing new detail with each day.

Wednesday, November 13th. Written by Ray Bogucki.

The innermost planet Mercury is now lost to view behind the Sun, but the other four bright planets are all visible in the early morning sky. The parade of planets begins with Saturn, now rising in the constellation Taurus about 7 p.m. Saturn is followed by brighter Jupiter which rises in the constellation Cancer just before midnight. About 4 a.m., Mars climbs into the eastern sky close to the bright star Spica, in the constellation Virgo. Finally, Venus appears, shining brilliantly on the eastern horizon below Mars, just at the first hint of morning twilight. Venus will climb rapidly higher in the early morning sky, and will overtake Mars a month from now. When Venus rises, Mars is a little above it, Jupiter shines high in the south, while Saturn is still well up in the western sky. An imaginary line through the four planets neatly defines the ecliptic

An especially favorable morning to view this planetary lineup arrives next Tuesday, Nov. 19, when the sky will present the last opportunity of our lifetimes to witness a major Leonid meteor shower, or storm. Three times each century, comet Tempel-Tuttle passes through Earth's orbital path, spewing billions of dust particles as it swings around the Sun. On the night of Nov. 18, into the morning of Nov. 19, the Earth will pass through dense ribbons of dust from two previous passes of the comet, giving rise to two separate peaks of meteor activity. Our first encounter, with the dust trail from the 1767 passage of the comet, will generate meteors that are predicted to peak between 10 p.m. and midnight on Monday. Six hours later, we plow through the trail left in 1866, with peak activity from 4 a.m. to sunrise Tuesday morning. By unfortunate coincidence, the nearly full Moon will brighten the sky, washing out the fainter meteors, but the brighter ones will easily shine through. Major Leonid storms are not expected again until the year 2131, so don't miss this one.

Thursday, November 14th. Written by Alan French.

The Moon is now between first quarter and Full and rose at 2:36 PM this afternoon. At 8:00 PM you will find a bright Moon in the southern sky. Moonset will be at 2:14 AM and the remainder of the night will be dark and moonless.

Early risers will have a good chance to see the International Space Station pass over our area in the pre-dawn hours tomorrow morning. At maximum brightness the ISS will appear as bright as the brighter stars and its motion across the sky will make it easy to pick out. It will move out of the Earth's shadow and into the sunlit skies high overhead just before 5:43 PM when it will be 18 degrees above the northwestern horizon (the distance across the knuckles when you hold a fist at arm's length is 10 degrees). The ISS will be highest just before 5:45 when it will be 60 degrees above the north-northeastern horizon, and it will vanish below the east-southeastern horizon at 5:48. If you miss the ISS as it comes out of the Earth's shadow, just look very high up in the northern sky at 5:44 and watch for a star moving toward the east.

Although it is still a few days off, it is not too early to start planning for this year's Leonid meteor shower. Last year's Leonid meteor shower produced one of the best celestial shows in recent history, with meteors streaking across the sky in great numbers. During some of the pre-dawn hours last year, there were many meteors a second. Unfortunately, a bright Moon will interfere with this year's show, but astronomers are predicting another fine show. It should be well worth watching, especially if there are a lot of bright fireballs this year. The first peak is at 11 PM on Monday evening, but the radiant will just be coming above our horizon then. Some of the brighter meteors that graze the upper atmosphere may be visible, however, and these tend to travel across much of the sky. Increasing numbers of meteors should be visible after midnight. The Leonids will peak on Tuesday morning, November 19, at around 5:30 AM. The best show should be between 4:30 AM and dawn, with the best numbers probably occurring in the hour between 5:00 and 6:00 AM.

For best meteor viewing, find a location with a good view of the sky, and dress very, very warmly. Look high in the east if you are out around 11 PM. For the pre-dawn peak you can look anywhere in the sky.

Friday, November 15th to Sunday, November 17th. Written by George Mileski

The moon on Friday thru Sunday is a waxing gibbous moon. The moon will be full on Tuesday November the 19th. The moon is found in the constellation Pisces the fish. In the morning sky one hour before sunrise you can see Venus with the star Spica above it and Mars above Spica. Higher up in the sky is Jupiter with Saturn west of Jupiter. Mars rises about 4AM, right now its in the constellation Virgo.

The reddish color of the planet reminded the ancients of blood, and they named it for the god of war. The orbit of Mars around the sun is outside the earth's orbit. Its eccentric orbit brings it to within 35 million miles of earth every 15 to 17 years. August of 2003 will be such a time. At its brightest , Mars is distinctly red. It has two small moons called Phobos and Deimos, which can be seen only in powerful telescopes. Because the orbit of Mars is outside of earth's orbit, it is called a superior planet. Superior planets like Mars look brightest when they are in the opposite side of earth from the sun, a position called opposition. 

Then a fully lighted disk faces us. When in opposition using a telescope we can see white polar caps. Dust storms and dark areas once mistakenly thought to be water or vegetation may also be seen. The dark areas are probably surface exposed after dust storms. The so called "canals" that were first reported in 1877 and by Percival Lowell were probably just mountain ranges that our space probes found out.

Mars has huge volcanoes, some of which may still be active. Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in the solar system, it towers almost 17 miles above the mean surface and contains more lava than the Hawaiian Islands.&;

Monday, November 18th. Written by Joseph Slomka.

The Sun sets tonight at 4:30 with night falling at 6:08 PM. Dawn breaks at 5:13 AM and ends with sunrise at 6:52.

By midnight Saturn rides high in the East. Located in Taurus' horns, Saturn appears as a creamy white brilliant object. Binoculars show its oval shape; a telescope is needed to see the famous rings. Jupiter lies lower above the eastern horizon. It too appears as a bright object. Unlike Saturn, Jupiter is a binocular object. Its ball and the four Galilean satellites are easily seen.

Between Dawn and Sunrise, Mars and Venus are moderately high in the East. Mars is dimmer and smaller, so it should be observed earlier. Venus is brighter and larger, so it is seen first. Venus, in a telescope, is a thin crescent, while Mars is almost fully illuminated. Since Venus is about eight and a half degrees below the Red Planet, it should be an easy guidepost to Mars.

Tonight's big event does not require special equipment. One only needs warm clothes and patience. Tonight is the maximum for the annual Leonid Meteor Shower. Meteor showers are caused by the litter trail that comets leave behind. Tonight's shower is caused by periodic comet Temple-Tuttle. As the Earth plows through the debris field, comet bits enter our atmosphere, burn up and are seen as meteors. If any survive the plunge, they are then called meteorites. The meteors appear to flow from the lion's head, in Leo, just to Jupiter's right.

As the term "periodic" implies, Comet Temple-Tuttle returns on a regular basis. This means that there are several debris fields. Tonight, Earth enters two such areas: the first at 11 PM and the next at 6 AM. Comet forecasters are predicting several thousand meteors per hour. However, there are problems. First, the Capital District's notorious weather; second, the all night Full Moon washes out many faint meteors.

If the weather is clear and you go meteor hunting. Dress warmly and try to observe in the darkest area possible. Looking at an area not affected by the Moon's glow also helps.

Tuesday, November 19th. Written by Jonathan Cassidy.

Full moon tonight leaves us with a bright night. Not as many stars are visible at night this week than there were two weeks ago.

We have a Penumbral Luna Eclipse at 8:34 PM tonight. This is visible by most of north America. The moon will not go dark but will dim noticably in many areas.

Bright stars visible to night that we can use to navigate the sky include from west to east: Vega furthest in the west, Deneb next, stars of Cassiopia north of the zenith, corner stars of the Great Square of Pegasus south of the zenith, Capella a white star, Aldebaran a redish star.

If you can find these stars in the bright light of a full moon night you can use them on dark sky nights to find your way around the multitude of stars that can be seen.

Note that the eastern most corner stars of the great square point to Polaris and nearly mark the first hour of right asention.

Capella and Aldebran have an occasional companion now. The planet Saturn is passing through Tarus the Bull now.

Wednesday, November 20th. Written by Mike Molitor.

The Moon and the planets are visible to us on Earth because they reflect light emitted by our Sun. Tonight the Moon is one day past full and the reflected light hinders viewing of faint astronomical objects all night.

Saturn rises at 6:15 pm and is visible until morning. At magnitude -0.3, it is the bright "star" 18 degrees east of the Moon, and 3 degrees east of the star zeta-Taurus. Presently, Saturn is 8.16 astronomical units (or about 750 million miles) from the Earth. The reflected light from Saturn takes slightly over one hour to reach us across this great distance.

Saturn is the 6th planet from the Sun, and the most distant of the naked-eye planets. It is 75,000 miles in diameter, and has a ring system that is 165,000 miles in diameter. Currently, Saturn’s rings are tilted 26 degrees to our view which is nearly the maximum that can occur. A small telescope is needed to see the rings.

The planet Jupiter rises at 10:15 pm and also is visible until dawn. Jupiter shines at magnitude &endash;2.2, appearing twice as bright as Saturn to the human eye. Jupiter is located 12 degrees west of the star Regulus in the constellation Leo. Jupiter is 5 astronomical units from the Earth, or about 460 million miles distant. The reflected light from Jupiter takes about 45 minutes to reach the Earth.

Jupiter is the 5th planet from the Sun and is nearly 90,000 miles in diameter. Jupiter has four bright star-like moons that are easily visible in a small telescope. Galileo first saw these moons through his primitive telescope in 1609. By observing the changing position of the "companion stars" relative to Jupiter, Galileo realized that they were not stars at all. Instead he realized that these were moons in orbit around Jupiter. Because of this discovery the moons are also known as the Galilean satellites. The names of the four moons are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Castillo.

Thursday, November 21st. Written by Alan French.

The Sun set at 4:28 this afternoon. The Moon was full late Tuesday night and rose this afternoon at 5:33 PM. Tonight the Moon will provide a good landmark for finding the ringed planet Saturn. Early in the evening Saturn star below and to the left of the rising Moon and will be the only bright star in that area. As the Moon's motion moves it eastward among the stars, Saturn will gradually appear more directly below the Moon, and by 11 PM the Moon will be almost directly above Saturn.

Through a telescope, Saturn is a beautiful sight. Our view of the rings changes as Saturn travels around the Sun, and right now the rings are tipped considerably toward us and are a stunning sight. Virtually any telescope providing at least 30 power will reveal the planet's rings, so if you have a small telescope sitting in your closet, either designed for astronomy or nature study, take it out and point it toward Saturn. Unfortunately, binoculars are not quite powerful enough to show the rings - although they might make the planet's shape look a bit odd. A better target for binoculars will be visible above the eastern horizon at midnight. The brilliant star there is the planet Jupiter.

We now know of 39 moons orbitting Jupiter. Twenty-two of these were discovered within the past three years, but 4 of Jupiter's moons were discovered by Galileo way back in 1610 through the first telescope used to explore the night sky. These four moons, now known as the Gallilean moons, are visible in binoculars when they are farthest from the planet. They appear as faint stars very close to Jupiter. Through binoculars, two stars should be visible close to Jupiter at midnight tonight. One is the Ganymede and the other is Callisto. Ganymede is Jupiter's largest moon, and Callisto is the next largest.

If you are up as the light of dawn is appearing in the east but before the sun has risen look toward the east-southeast. There, not far above the horizon, you will see a star that far outshines all the others. This is the planet Venus, which can appear brighter than any of the other planets due to its closeness to our Earth and its reflective cloud cover.. Venus is so bright it can be seen in the daytime if you know where to look. When it is in the morning sky it is fun to see how far into daylight you can follow the planet. Can you still find Venus when the Sun is above the horizon?

Friday, November 22nd to Sunday, November 23rd. Written by George Mileski

The moon is a waning gibbous one at this time of the month. It will be a last quarter moon on Wednesday the 27th. On Friday, Saturn will be 3 degrees south of the moon. In the morning sky one hour before sunrise, Venus, Mars and Spica form an isoceles triangle 61/2 degrees long.

Well the Leonid meteor shower is now history, I hope you all enjoyed the show, I'm just kidding of course, I know it was cloudy around here. I personally saw nothing but clouds. These meteor showers are fun to look at, but for the satellites's in the sky, they can cause a lot of problems. The problem is the speed of these particles, not there size. The cometary debris that gives rise to annual meteor showers like the Leonids is typically smaller than the diameter of a human hair and no larger than a grain of sand, but "the encounter velocity is enormous".  

Leonid particles encounter space craft at about 155,000 miles per hour. The result is that even a grain of sand the size of the head of a pin has the same energy as a .22 caliber bullet. Though some satellites maybe critically damaged by an impact with one of these speeding bullets, most will experience no more than a pitting of their optical surfaces and mirrors. During the short Leonid bombardment, it is estimated that satellites will experience one to three years of weathering that will degrade their performance.  

The biggest threat comes from the formation of an electrically charged cloud called a plasma. The sudden electrical pulse created by the impact can damage sensitive circuits and computers on the sattellite in the same way a lighting strike can create a power surge that damages your home computer and other equipment. To prepare for this, sensitive equipment is powered down and the satellite is repositioned away from the showers radiant, or direction the shower is coming from to protect it. 

Monday, November 25th. Written by Joseph Slomka.

The Sun sets at 4:25 PM; night falls at 6:05. Dawn breaks at 5:20 AM and ends with sunset at 7:00 AM.

At Sunset, no planets are easily seen. By midnight, Saturn is well up in the horns of Taurus, the Bull. Saturn is easily identified as a creamy white object. Jupiter is much lower in the East but much brighter. The Moon, currently 65 percent illuminated, lies just to Jupiter's upper left.

Pre-dawn skies are full of interesting objects. Saturn is almost due South, the Moon and Jupiter are now high in the East. Mars and Venus hover just above the eastern horizon. Mars is uppermost, but much dimmer. It is tiny, even in telescopes. Venus, on the other hand, is very bright, only four degrees below Mars; in fact, the two planets should share the same binocular field. Venus, in telescopes or powerful binoculars, appears only seventeen percent illuminated. This is the beginning for a very good appearance for Venus in our skies.

The double constellation Pegasus and Andromeda ride high in the East about 9:30 PM. Pegasus is usually identified by a giant square that is marked by four stars. Andromeda is a double chain of stars that springs from the upper stars. If one counts two stars east and two stars up from Pegasus, a smudge of light can be seen. Binoculars or small telescopes show a central bright hazy ball surrounded by a more delicate oval. Very large telescopes are needed to see that it is a spiral galaxy, much like our own. The Andromeda galaxy is about 2.25 million light years away, the closest spiral galaxy, and the most distant object visible to the naked eye. The galaxy is tilted about fifteen degrees to our line of sight and is about 110, 000 light years across. It is thought to contain about 300 billion stars, and is one of the most luminous galaxies.

Tuesday, November 26th. Written by Jonathan Cassidy.

Near third quarter moon tonight. Good dark skies for observing dim objects in the sky. Let su look for clusters. Clusters of stars occure in our galaxy and other galaxies. The ones we can see are along the milky way galaxy.

Find a place away from lights and looking from the top of the sky toward the north. Let your eyes become accustome to this dim setting.

Find the "W" of the constellation Cassiopia. It is just to the north of the top, zenith, of the sky. Count the stars from west to east and number them 1, 2, 3, 4. Take a line from 3 to 4 and follow that line in the direction of the next brightest star, twice the distance beyond star #4. Look along this line with naked eyes or binoculars for a fuzzy patch of stars. This is the Perseus Couble Cluster.

This set of clusters has distict differences one from the other. These differences can be seen in binoculars, but not naked eye. Your abilty to see this set of clusters naked eye will depend on the health of your eyes and your age. Older people do not build night vision as well as the young do. Use of alochol or tobacco or other drugs also diminishes our ability to see at night.

Wednesday, November 27th. Written by Mike Molitor.

The Moon’s phase is a little past third quarter which occurred at 10:46am. If the weather cooperates, deep-sky observing will be possible from end of twilight at 6:05 pm until moonrise at 11:50 pm.

Perhaps the most famous naked-eye deep-sky object visible from the northern hemisphere is the ‘great galaxy’ in the constellation Andromeda. It is well placed this time of year, being nearly overhead tonight at 8:12 pm. The Great Andromeda Galaxy, is also known as ‘M31’ from the 18th century comet hunter Charles Messier’s list of false comets or comet-like objects. M31 is resonably bright at magnitude +3.4, but it’s also big. It’s an oval glow 3 degrees long by 1 degree across, so the light is spread over a large area. As with all deep sky objects, they are best viewed in the darkest of skies, well away from the glow of city lights. It is mind-bending to consider that the photons entering your eye are over 2 million years old. That is because the distance to M31 is 2.5 million light-years.

In addition to your eyes, binoculars are a good tool to use. A low power, wide angle telescope is also a good choice. These optical instruments gather-up more of the old photons and funnel them to your eye. Magnification of 10 to 15 in binoculars provides a good view. Double that for a small telescope. Locating M31 is easy. Just extend a line from the star beta-Andromeda through mu-Andromeda, and continue on for an equal distance. You’re there. Enjoy the ancient photons from a galaxy far away tonight.

After moon rise, shift your gaze to the planets. Saturn is well placed and crosses the meridian at 1:15 am on the 28th. If you’re up until dawn, then look for Jupiter, which transits the meridian at 4:50 am, and Venus which is easily visible low in the east and very bright at magnitude &endash;4.6. A telescope or binoculars should show Venus 19% illuminated and clearly crescent shaped.

Thursday, November 28th. Written by Alan French.

Friday, November 29th to Sunday, December 1st. Written by George Mileski

The moon at this time is a waning crescent moon. It will be a new moon on Wednesday December 4th. On Sunday, December 1st, 11/2 hours before sunrise the crescent moon, Mars and Venus form a compact gathering with the star Spica to the upper right. With Venus 2 degrees south of the moon 

Its a great time to see Venus in broad daylight, using the moon as your guide. You should have no trouble seeing Venus using binoculars, just focus on the moon and look 2 degrees south and "voila" there's Venus. Just pray for clear skies. 

If you go outside at 9 or so a night, you will see one of the most ancient constellations in the sky, Taurus "the bull". Taurus is easy to recognize by its V shaped grouping of stars, known as the Hyades. The V-shaped grouping of stars represents the bulls face. The brightest star in the asterism, and in all of Taurus, is orangish Aldebaran, which marks the bull's fiery eye. The Hyades forms an open star cluster, a collection of stars held togather loosely by gravity, one of six fairly bright open clusters in Taurus. An open cluster's stars are born from a single cloud of gas and dust in space. An open cluster ultimately falls apart, however, with its member stars going their separate ways because of gravitational interactions between cluster members and the pull of the galaxy at large.  

One open cluster that can be seen with the naked eye, is the famous Pleiades or Seven Sisters, which represents the shoulder of the bull. The Pleiades looks like a tiny dipper to the naked eye. At this time ENE of Alderbaran is the planet Saturn.

Home  • About Us  • Collections  • Education  • Events  • Grants  • History  • Skywatch  • Site Map & Index

Dudley Observatory
107 Nott Terrace, Suite 201
Schenectady, NY 12308
(518) 382-7583
info@dudleyobservatory.org