Monday, November 2
Today marks the 20th anniversary of the arrival of the first crew — NASA astronaut Bill Shepherd and Russian cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev — aboard the International Space Station (ISS). It also marks 20 years of continuous human occupation of the space station.
The ISS, which orbits Earth at a speed of about 5 miles (8 km) per second, takes about 90 minutes to complete one orbit around our planet. It makes 16 orbits each day and is visible from many locations on the ground as sunlight reflects off its surface. To observers on the ground, the ISS looks like a bright, moving star or airplane with no blinking lights.
NASA maintains a website with
ISS viewing opportunities by location, which you can use to check the next time you’ll be able to spot the space station overhead. Because the ISS is moving so fast, it takes only moments to pass overhead. You’ll want to get into position early to ensure you have time to find and follow it through the sky.
Sunrise: 6:31 A.M.
Sunset: 4:56 P.M.
Moonrise: 6:19 P.M.
Moonset: 8:18 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (96%)
Tuesday, November 3
Mercury is stationary at 3 A.M. EST; the solar system’s speediest planet is also on its way toward greatest western elongation on the 10th. The planet stands 3° high in Virgo an hour before sunrise, glowing a bright magnitude 0.7 and rivaling nearby Spica (Alpha [α] Virginis), located just 4° west-southwest of the planet. Through a telescope, Mercury appears 25 percent lit and spans 8"; for those interested in coming back day after day, you’ll see it grow to 50 percent lit by November 8, while it shrinks by 1" during that same timeframe.
Higher above the horizon, hovering between Porrima and Zaniah (Gamma [γ] and Eta [η] Virginis), is Venus. It’s a much brighter magnitude –4, showing an 82-percent-lit crescent that’s 13" across through a telescope. Venus is moving about 1° along the ecliptic each morning and by November 5, it will sit a mere 1° southwest of Porrima.
Sunrise: 6:32 A.M.
Sunset: 4:55 P.M.
Moonrise: 6:57 P.M.
Moonset: 9:19 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (91%)
Wednesday, November 4
With the end of daylight saving time two days ago, the Sun sets an hour earlier and you can set up to start viewing Jupiter and Saturn even earlier in the evening sky. At sunset, the pair is roughly 30° high in Sagittarius to the south, with only 4.5° separating them. The two giant planets will continue to close in for much of the rest of the year. Saturn shines at magnitude 0.6 and sits northeast of magnitude –2.2 Jupiter.
All four of Jupiter’s Galilean moons stretch out to the planet’s west tonight. In order of appearance from closest to farthest, they are Ganymede, Io, Europa, and Callisto. Although Io orbits physically closest to Jupiter, Ganymede appears nearer to the disk tonight due to projection effects. Don't be fooled by the 10th-magnitude field star just northwest of Jupiter — the moons all stretch out in a straight line due west of the planet, thanks to the low inclination of Jupiter’s equator to the plane of the solar system along which we view it.
After full darkness has fallen, swing your scope next to a spot 1.25° east-southeast of Jupiter to see if you can find magnitude 14 Pluto — photographers should be able to nab it with a one-minute exposure even through a small refractor.
Sunrise: 6:33 A.M.
Sunset: 4:53 P.M.
Moonrise: 7:41 P.M.
Moonset: 10:17 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (85%)
Thursday, November 5
Return with your telescope to Sagittarius tonight after sunset to catch Comet 88P/Howell nearly due north of Tau (τ) Sagittarii, a 3rd-magnitude star about 3° southeast of brighter magnitude 2 Nunki. Howell floats just over 1° north of Tau, headed for a midmonth rendezvous with Jupiter and Saturn.
Return to Nunki and then drop your scope’s gaze 4° south of the star to spot M54, a magnitude 8 globular cluster. But this is no ordinary globular cluster — it doesn’t belong to the Milky Way, but is instead associated with one of its
satellite galaxies, the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy. When Messier cataloged the cluster in 1778, he had no idea it belonged to a galaxy outside our own. And in fact, the Sagittarius Dwarf wasn’t discovered until just over 200 years later, in 1994.
Sunrise: 6:34 A.M.
Sunset: 4:52 P.M.
Moonrise: 8:32 P.M.
Moonset: 11:13 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (78%)