This Week's Sky at a Glance for November 26 – December 4

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Some daily events in the changing sky for November 26 – December 4

by Alan M. MacRobert

Some daily events in the changing sky for November 26 – December 4.

It'sstill pretty dark when a lot of people get up at this time of year. Ifthat means you, look southeast in early dawn to see the waning Moonpassing Saturn, Spica, and Venus day by day. The blue 10° scale is aboutthe size of your fist held at arm's length. (For clarity, the Moon isshown three times actual size. These scenes are drawn for the middle ofNorth America. European observers: move each Moon symbol a quarter ofthe way toward the one for the previous date.)Sky & Telescope diagramFriday, November 26

  • Bright Jupiter shines in thesouthern sky after dark. By about 8 or 8:30 p.m. this week, when Jupiterhas moved a little to the right of due south, it stands directly abovetwinkly Fomalhaut, the Autumn Star, far below it.

    Saturday, November 27

  • Orion is well up inthe east-southeast after about 8 p.m. (depending on where you live inyour time zone). Watch far below Orion for Sirius rising some time after9 (again depending on your location).
  • Jupiter's GreatRed Spot crosses the planet's central meridian around 7:51 p.m. EST.Jupiter's new South Equatorial Belt Outbreak (see pictures below)crosses the central meridian about 3 hours and 40 minutes later, 11:31p.m. EST.

    Sunday, November 28

  • Last-quarter Moon(exact at 3:36 p.m. Eastern Standard Time). As is always the case whenthe Moon is last quarter, it rises around the middle of the night. Theexact time depends on your location.

    Monday, November 29

  • Mira, the brightestlong-period red variable star, is now up in good evening view as itfades from its unusually bright maximum. As of November 24th observerswere reporting it at about magnitude 3.5, still plain to the unaidedeye. Estimate its magnitude with the comparison-star chart in theSeptember Sky & Telescope, page 58.

    Anew bright white spot (indicated) in the latitude of Jupiter 's SouthEquatorial Belt was the first sign of events that will probably lead tothe whole belt's return. Discoverer Christopher Go took this image at10:24 UT November 10th. Compare with the later images below. South isup.Christopher Go

  • Jupiter's Great Red Spot crosses the planet's centralmeridian around 9:30 p.m. EST. Jupiter's South Equatorial Belt Outbreakcrosses the central meridian about 3 hours and 40 minutes later, 1:10a.m. Tuesday morning EST.

    Tuesday, November 30

  • In early dawn tomorrowmorning, North Americans can look southeast to find Saturn, Spica andVenus left of waning crescent Moon, as shown above.

    Wednesday, December 1

  • In Thursday morning'sdawn, the waning Moon poses to the right of bright Venus as seen fromNorth America. The two form a nice triangle with much fainter Spicaabove the Moon, as shown at the top of this page.

    Thursday, December 2

  • The bright eclipsingvariable star Algol should be in one of its periodic dimmings, magnitude3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple hours centered on 11:35 p.m.Pacific Standard Time (2:35 a.m. Friday morning Eastern Standard Time).Algol takes several additional hours to fade and to rebrighten. Use ourcomparison-star chart. (For all times of Algol's minima this month, good worldwide, see the December Sky & Telescope, page 64, or use our Algol predictor.)

    Justabove center, the tiny new bright white spot in the latitude of Jupiter's South Equatorial Belt had already grown a border of dark material byNovember 12th. Although the white spot doesn't look like much here, itsbrilliance in methane-band images revealed it to be a violent eruptiondriving cloud material unusually high into Jupiter's upper atmosphere.See our article Jupiter's Lost Belt Reviving?, and keep watch for yourself!

    Christopher Go took this image at 11:17 UT November 12th, when the System II longitude on Jupiter's central meridian was 292°. South is up.

    Christopher Go
  • Jupiter's Great Red Spot crosses the planet's centralmeridian around 7:00 p.m. EST. Jupiter's South Equatorial Belt Outbreakcrosses the central meridian about 3 hours and 40 minutes later, 10:40p.m. EST.
  • In dawn Friday, look for the thin Moon far below Venus in the southeast.

    Friday, December 3

  • After dinnertime at thistime of year, the M-shaped constellation Cassiopeia floats nearlyoverhead when you face north (for skywatchers in the world'smid-northern latitudes). Far below Cassiopeia, find Polaris, the NorthStar. And far below Polaris lies the Big Dipper.
  • Jupiter's moon Europa reappears from eclipse out of Jupiter's shadowaround 8:34 p.m. EST. A small telescope will show it gradually swellinginto view just east of the planet. (For a complete listing of allJupiter-satellite events this month, good worldwide, see the December Sky & Telescope, page 64.)

    Saturday, December 4

  • Even though it'sDecember, bright Vega, the "Summer Star," remains shining in thenorthwest in early evening. The brightest star above it is Deneb, thehead of the Northern Cross in Cygnus. A little less far to Vega's rightis the Lozenge, the head of Draco the Dragon. The Dragon's blunt nosealways points to Vega.

    November17th: Three outbreaks now, all in a row! Again, methane-band imageryconfirms that the newest, smallest white spot is boiling up to a veryhigh altitude, while the older two seem to be sinking back down. Southis up.Christopher Go

  • Jupiter's Great Red Spot crosses the planet's centralmeridian around 8:39 p.m. EST. Jupiter's South Equatorial Belt Outbreakcrosses the central meridian about 3 hours and 40 minutes later.




    Sky at a Glance is now an iPhone app! Put S&T SkyWeek on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch and get the above listings anytime, anywhere — with interactivesky maps! Tap a button to see the scene described, customized for yourlocation worldwide. From there you can scroll the view all around thesky, zoom in or out, change to any time or date, and turn on animation.Go to Apple's iTunes store from your device and buy S&T SkyWeek — just 99 cents!




    By November 24th, dark material was spreading far from the outbreak region.Christopher GoWant to become a better amateur astronomer? Learn your way around the constellations. They're the key to locating everything fainter and deeper to hunt with binoculars or a telescope.

    For an easy-to-use constellation guide covering the whole evening sky, use the big monthly map in the center of each issue of Sky & Telescope, the essential magazine of astronomy. Or download our free Getting Started in Astronomy booklet (which only has bimonthly maps).

    Once you get a telescope, to put it to good use you must have adetailed, large-scale sky atlas (set of charts). The standards are the Pocket Sky Atlas, which shows stars to magnitude 7.6; the larger Sky Atlas 2000.0 (stars to magnitude 8.5); and the even larger and deeper Uranometria 2000.0 (stars to magnitude 9.75). And read how to use your charts effectively.

    You'll also want a good deep-sky guidebook, such as Sky Atlas 2000.0 Companion by Strong and Sinnott, or the more detailed and descriptive Night Sky Observer's Guide by Kepple and Sanner, or the classic if dated Burnham's Celestial Handbook.



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