Venus is the brilliant evening “star” now shining at magnitude -4 in the southwest at dusk. In early November—five months after its passage behind the sun at superior conjunction on June 4—Venus finally sets in a dark sky, after twilight ends. Watch for an ever-more-impressive evening display for the naked eye, binoculars and telescopes, as Venus swings closer to Earth in coming months, more than doubling in brilliance by February before a fast-changing finale in March!
On Nov. 4, Jupiter, of magnitude -2.7, rises just before Venus sets. On what date will you first see these two brightest planets simultaneously? By Nov. 16, from the Coachella Valley, they’ll be 6° above opposite horizons about 1.9 hours after sunset. On that date, a lineup of six solar system bodies—Venus-Saturn–Neptune–Uranus-moon-Jupiter—will span 162°. On Nov. 30, Venus-Jupiter will be 144° apart and 13°-14° above opposite horizons about 1.6 hours after sunset for the Coachella Valley. Venus-Jupiter will be 120° apart on Dec. 19, and 90° on Jan. 14. Does this fast decrease in their separation lead you to expect a conjunction of Venus-Jupiter within three months? Sorry to disappoint, but they’ll get no closer than 61.7° apart during this evening apparition, on Feb. 27, before Venus turns back and crosses into the morning sky in March 2025. Soon after, Jupiter emerges into the morning sky in July, and we’ll finally get to witness a close pairing of Venus-Jupiter on Aug. 12, 2025.
There’s a new moon on Nov. 1 and another on Nov. 30, neatly bookending a visible cycle of lunar phases from start to finish within the calendar month. The full moon occurs near mid-month, on Nov. 15. During evenings Nov. 3-17, follow the moon past Venus, Saturn, the Pleiades, Aldebaran and Jupiter. On Nov. 3, find the 6 percent crescent moon within 9° to the lower right of Venus. At dusk on Nov. 4, the 12 percent crescent appears within 4° to Venus’ lower left. Residents in and around the Coachella Valley can try for a daytime sighting of Venus earlier in the afternoon of Nov. 4 as it passes directly south two hours and 40 minutes before sunset, 4° above and slightly to the left of the lunar crescent.
A telescope will show Venus presenting a disk nearly 15” (arcseconds) across on Nov. 4 and in gibbous phase, about 76 percent illuminated. A magnification of about 120x would make Venus appear the same size as the moon to the unaided eye. Venus must be much farther away from us than the moon in order to display a greater phase while appearing so close to the crescent moon in the sky.
On the afternoon of Nov. 5, the southernmost moon of this month passes just 27° up in the south, 1.8 hours before sunset.
On Nov. 10, at about 5:55 p.m., the moon’s northern edge passes less than 0.5° south of the planet Saturn. Even on other nights, when Saturn isn’t so deep in the moon’s glare, the planet, at magnitude +0.8 to +0.9 will look fainter than usual. That’s because its rings are tipped only 5° from edge-on this month. This angle reaches a maximum before mid-November as Earth runs ahead of Saturn for a slightly better peek at the northern face of the rings. Saturn will fade even more in coming months as its rings close. They’ll be presented edge-on to Earth and the sun in late March, while Saturn is hidden in the sun’s glare, unfortunately, and in early May, respectively.
The moon, less than a half-day past full, will pass through the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters, star cluster on the night of Nov. 15-16, occulting some stars, including its brightest member, third-magnitude Alcyone. Two hours after sunset on the next evening, Nov. 16, the waning gibbous moon will appear in the east-northeast, within 8° above bright Jupiter. Aldebaran, eye of Taurus and follower of the Pleiades, will appear 10° to the right of the moon-Jupiter pair, forming an isosceles triangle. Follow this gathering overnight until sunrise the next morning, Nov. 17, or wake up an hour before sunrise for another look, and you’ll catch the moon and Jupiter only 5° apart in the western sky. Can you still spot Jupiter on Nov. 17 to the lower left of the moon in daytime, at or just after sunrise? It’ll be easy for binoculars!
The northernmost moon reaches its highest point in the sky during the early morning hours of Nov. 18, when it passes just 5° south of overhead in the Coachella Valley, 4.4 hours before sunrise.
Continue following the waning moon an hour before sunup through Nov. 29. On Nov. 19, the “Twin stars” Pollux and Castor, of magnitude +1.1 and +1.6 in Gemini, are 7°-8° above the moon. On Nov. 20, the Twins are 6°-10° to the moon’s lower right, while brighter Mars, of magnitude -0.3, is 5° to the moon’s upper left. On Nov. 22, Regulus, at +1.4-magnitude, the heart of Leo, the Lion, is about 5° to the lower left of the 55% moon, just more than half full and nearing last quarter phase. On Nov. 23, the fat crescent 45% moon is 7° to the lower left of Regulus. One hour before sunrise on Nov. 26, +1.0-magnitude Spica, spike of grain in the hand of Virgo, appears within 11° to the lower left of a 19% crescent moon. The next morning, Nov. 27, presents a very beautiful sight, especially for binoculars and small telescopes. About three hours before sunrise, the just-risen 13% crescent moon will be closely accompanied by Spica, only a fraction of a lunar diameter to the upper right of the moon’s Earth-lit edge. Watch the moon and Spica gradually separate as they rise higher, and dawn brightens. Farther east in U.S., east of a line from New Mexico through North Dakota, an occultation of Spica by the moon will be visible. But from the Western U.S., the closest approach of the moon and star occurs before moonrise and is not visible.
The waning moon is visible for two additional mornings. An hour before sunrise on Nov. 28, look for the 7% crescent 13° to the lower left of Spica. On the 29th, look for the 3% old crescent moon rising in the east-southeast, 25° to the lower left of Spica.
Mars’ northern hemisphere has its spring equinox on Nov. 12. Telescopes will show the red planet’s north polar region appearing very bright while taking up a significant portion of the disk, as the North Polar Hood (cloud cover) breaks up, revealing the North Polar Cap of frozen carbon dioxide and water ice underneath. If you observe near these best times, you can also spot Mars’ dark surface feature, Syrtis Major. This plateau of volcanic rock will appear as a dark triangle near the center of Mars’ tiny 10”-11” disk on Nov. 14 at 12:38 a.m.; Nov. 15 at 1:16 a.m.; and 38 minutes later on each successive morning, until Nov. 23 at 6:22 a.m. Mars will brighten to nearly equal Sirius, and its disk will grow in apparent size to nearly 15” at closest approach and opposition in January 2025.
The Mercury challenge: With the ecliptic—the centerline of the zodiac and plane of Earth’s orbit—making a shallow angle with the horizon at dusk, and with Mercury south of (below) that line, our solar system’s innermost planet has a poor evening apparition this time around. Using binoculars during twilight, look very low in the southwest to west-southwest, to the lower right of Venus, by 18° Nov. 7-14. On Nov. 15, Mercury, at magnitude -0.3, reaches greatest elongation, nearly 23° to the upper left of the setting sun. From Palm Springs in mid-twilight, when the sun is 9° down 41 minutes after sunset, Mercury is highest Nov. 17-20, just 5° up and 19°-20° to the lower right of Venus. Thereafter, Mercury fades rapidly, past magnitude +1 by Nov. 28.
The Astronomical Society of the Desert will host a star party on Saturday, Nov. 9, at the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument Visitor Center; and on Saturday, Nov. 23, at Sawmill Trailhead, a site in the Santa Rosa Mountains at elevation 4,000 feet. For dates and times of other star parties, and maps and directions to the two sites, visit astrorx.org.
Many events described in this column are illustrated in the Abrams Planetarium Sky Calendar, available by subscription from www.abramsplanetarium.org/skycalendar. For $12 per year, subscribers receive quarterly mailings, each containing three monthly issues.
Robert Victor originated the Abrams Planetarium monthly Sky Calendar in October 1968 and still helps produce an occasional issue. He enjoys being outdoors sharing the beauty of the night sky and other wonders of nature. Robert Miller, who provided the evening and morning twilight charts, did graduate work in planetarium science, and later astronomy and computer science at Michigan State University, and remains active in research and public outreach in astronomy.
