Observing Notes

These sightings are for the middle of the month. There may be variations during the month.

Planets

	Rises	Sets	Mag.	Comment
Mercury	0826	1650	-0.31	- in Virgo
Venus	1246	1903		- in Sagittarius, crosses the meridian at 1553
Mars	0940	0713	1.88	- in Libra/Scorpius. It is very close to the Sun and is 3degrees from Venus
Jupiter	1322	2035	-1.64	- crosses the meridian at 1657 and is in Sagittarius
Saturn	0225	1536	1.44	- is in Leo
Uranus	1521	0223	5.98	- is in Aquarius and appears on the meridian at 2050
Neptune	1440	2342	7.91	- is in Capricornus - crosses the meridian at 1908.

Meteors

There are two prominent showers this month namely the Taurids and the Leonids.

The Taurids may be observed all month peaking on November 5th. The Leonids normal limits are between November 15th and 20th and peaking around November 17th. They are bright with trains and the parent comet is Temple-Tuttle. Unfortunately a large gibbous Moon will make observing difficult. The Taurids have a double radiant and are referred to as the south Taurids and the north Taurids.

At nightfall in the first week of November, look eastward for some south Taurid meteors. Expect the greatest number of meteors to fall around one or two in the morning, when the radiant point of the shower is high overhead. The forecast is for about 7 meteors per hour. The parent comet is Encke. Because the South and North Taurids overlap, there’s some chance of catching a few extra meteors per hour. In most years, you would see the maximum numbers at around 1 a.m., when Taurus the Bull rides high in the sky. Unfortunately the nearly full moon will wash most of these meteors out. >

Stars

Vega, Deneb and Altair are still prominent. Fomalhaut, at magnitude 1.15, is in Pices Austrinus. Aldebaran, in Taurus, has a magnitude of 0.85. It is interesting to know when objects transit and this one crosses the meridian at 0217.

Nebulae

TThe nebula in Orion crosses the meridian at 0250 and has magnitude 8. You may want to try for the Cocoon nebula in Cygnus. Scopes as small as 75mm can pick this out high in the sky.

Clusters

Open clusters to look for are M26 in Scutum at magnitude 8, M24 in Sagittarius at magnitude 4.6, M14 in Ophiuchus at magnitude 7.6 and M11 in Scutum (the Wild Duck Cluster) at magnitude 5.8. Globular cluster are M15 in Equulius at magnitude 6.4 and M30 in Capricornus at magnitude 7.5.

Galaxies

Remember M31 as usual and also the Sculptor galaxy NGC253 which can be observed with binoculars. It crosses the northern meridian at 2218 on the 15th November. The Sculptor galaxy crosses the meridian at 2222 hours low down. If you are finding difficulty finding galaxies such as M31 then I have devoted this month’s column of the Lomond and Trossachs National Park Newspaper to this subject.

Asteroids

There are three observable asteroids this month. Vesta has a magnitude of 6.33. It rises at 1732, sets at 0613 and crosses the meridian at 0224. Pallas has a magnitude of 7.79. It rises at 0029, sets at 0526and crosses the meridian at 0300. It is low in the sky. Ceres has a magnitude of 7.72. It rises at 0005, sets at 1610 and crosses the meridian at 0808. It can be found in Leo.

Ceres has been called a mini planet

Compiled by Andrew A. Leven

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