Poster’s Note: The text for this month’s installment from Dee Sharples, “The Sky In November 2024,” is provided below. Those wishing to listen to the article can click on the audio link below.
The Leonid meteor shower is active between November 6th – 30th. The peak will occur in the early morning hours of November 17th, but unfortunately, there will be an almost full Moon brightening the sky and washing them out. Observing on an off-peak morning may prove more satisfying. If the sky is clear anytime in the week before the peak, go outside around 4:00 A.M. The Moon will have set and the constellation Leo will have risen in the east. Meteor showers are named for the constellation from which they appear to originate, in this case Leo the Lion. The trail of dust and debris shed by Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle as it passes through our solar system every 33 years creates bright streaks of light as they burn up in our atmosphere.
Several planets will be on display in the November sky. They will look like stars – some bright, some dim – as you observe them with your naked eye.
As the sky darkens during the first half of the month, look for Mercury, the planet which lies closest to the Sun, shining brightly. It’s so close to the southwestern horizon that, to spot it, you’ll need a flat observing area free of obstacles. Toward the end of the month, it will start to dim and soon be lost from view below the horizon.
The dazzling planet Venus will be easy to spot shortly after sunset shining at a brilliant Magnitude -4.0 in the southwest. On the 4th, Venus lies very close to a crescent Moon creating a beautiful sight.
At 8:30 P.M., Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, rises in the east. During the month, it brightens to Magnitude -2.8. By midnight, Jupiter will have moved higher to the southeastern sky and at dawn, it will be in the west.
Saturn, the ringed planet, will be high in the southern sky shining like a medium-bright star as the sky darkens. At 8:00 P.M. on November 10th, the planet will be 1° north of the Moon.
At the beginning of the month, the red planet Mars will just be rising in the east at midnight. By the end of the month, it will rise earlier at 8:30 P.M. looking like fairly bright star.
Daylight Savings Time will end at 2:00 A.M. on Sunday, November 3rd. That’s when New York and the majority of other states will turn their clocks back one hour returning to Standard Time. People will gain an extra hour’s sleep on the 3rd, but darkness will arrive an hour earlier. Mornings which have been noticeably darker lately will be brighter with the Sun rising an hour sooner.