This Week In The Creator's Skies

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers,

the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

What is man, that thou art mindful of him?

Psalm 8:3,4

 (From Astronomy and Sky & Telescope Magazines) 

Sunday, November 17
The Leonid meteor shower peaks today, unfortunately with a bright gibbous Moon still in

the sky. Our satellite is still located in Taurus, passing 6° north of Jupiter at 10 A.M. EST.
Monday, November 18
The waning gibbous Moon rises within an hour after dark this evening. Watch for it to come up lower left of Jupiter. Another couple hours and Castor and Pollux will stand in good view to the Moon's lower left, while Orion sparkles about three times farther to the Moon's right.
Venus moves to stand 1.6° north of the globular cluster M22 in Sagittarius this evening. At magnitude 5.1, M22 is considered the Archer’s finest globular — look for it starting an hour after sunset, located to Venus’ upper right as Sagittarius is setting in the southwest.
Tuesday, November 19
Saturn’s largest and brightest moon, Titan, is located relatively close to the ringed planet

tonight. You’ll find Saturn in Aquarius, high in the south around local midnight and glowing at magnitude 0.8 — brighter than any of the stars around it.
Now the waning gibbous Moon rises about two hours after nightfall, forming a roughly straight line with Castor and Pollux close above it (for North America). By dawn on the 20th, the scene has again twisted around and the Moon has moved far off the Castor-Pollux line to shine between Pollux and similarly-colored Mars.
Wednesday, November 20
The Moon passes 2° north of Mars at 4 P.M. EST; the two are visible in the early-morning sky, more than 60° high in the southwestern sky two hours before sunrise. At this time, the Moon is still fairly far from Mars, hanging to the Red Planet’s lower right. Mars is near the central region of Cancer the Crab, glowing at magnitude –0.3. It’s some 3° northwest of the Beehive open cluster (M44), which should be readily visible in binoculars. The cluster is often visible to the naked eye, but the bright Moon nearby may wash it out this morning.
When Saturn and Fomalhaut are "southing

" (crossing the meridian due south, which they do simultaneously this week around 7 p.m.), the Pointers of the Big Dipper also stand straight upright on the opposite side of the sky: low due north, straight down below Polaris.
A little more than an hour after that, the first stars of Orion start rising above the east horizon (for skywatchers in the world's mid-northern latitudes). Starting with the rise of Bellatrix, it takes Orion's main figure a little more than an hour to clear the horizon.
Thursday, November 21
With the Moon

now below the horizon for much of the evening, we can hunt down a 140-mile-wide (225 km) main-belt world: 19 Fortuna. It’s 10th magnitude, easy to pick out among the relatively sparse background stars of Pisces with even a relatively small scope at low power.

Friday, November 22
Last-quarter Moon (exact at 8:28 p.m. EST). The Moon rises around 11 or midnight, in Leo. Regulus shines a few degrees upper right of it. The Sickle of Leo extends about a fist-width or a little more to the upper left from Regulus. They all climb together through the rest of the night.
Saturday, November 23
The bowl of the Little Dipper swings down in the evening at this time of year, left or lower left of Polaris in the north. Most of the Little Dipper is dim. Look as late as about 11 p.m., and it hangs straight down from Polaris.