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 This Week's Sky at a Glance November 01, 2009 8:24 AM

by Alan M. MacRobert

Some daily events in the changing sky for October 30 – November 7

Two planets accompany stars of Virgo in the east-southeast at dawn. This is their configuration on the morning after Halloween night. The visibility of faint objects in bright twilight is exaggerated here; you may need binoculars for all but Venus.
Sky & Telescope diagram
Friday, October 30
  • Watch in a telescope tonight as Jupiter's moon Ganymede partially occults the slightly fainter moon Europa, from 11:55 p.m. to 12:03 a.m. EDT (8:55 to 9:03 p.m. PDT). They'll be west of the planet; watch them appear to merge and then separate as the minutes tick by. For a complete list of such mutual events among Jupiter's satellites visible from North America through the end of the year, see the October Sky & Telescope, page 56.

    Saturday, October 31

  • Mars shines in the east during the early morning hours of Sunday. Binoculars will show that it's smack in the center of the Beehive star cluster, M44 — a bright candle in a ghostly Halloween pumpkin.
  • Jupiter's moon Io occults Europa partially from 11:38 to 11:43 p.m. EDT (8:38 to 8:43 p.m. PDT).

    Sunday, November 1

  • Daylight-saving time ends at 2:00 a.m. for most of the U.S. and Canada; clocks "fall back" an hour.
  • Jupiter is 1/3° north of Iota Capricorni (magnitude 4.3.) this evening through Tuesday evening.
  • Jupiter's Great Red Spot should cross Jupiter's central meridian (the imaginary line down the center of the planet's disk from pole to pole) around 8:27 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The "red" spot appears very pale orange-tan. It should be visible for about an hour before and after in a good 4-inch telescope if the atmospheric seeing is sharp and steady. A light blue or green filter helps. The Red Spot transits about every 9 hours 56 minutes; for all of the Red Spot's central-meridian crossing times, good worldwide, use our Red Spot calculator or print out our list for the rest of 2009.

    Monday, November 2

  • Full moon (exact at 2:14 p.m. EST)

    The Moon skims the Pleiades Tuesday night as seen from North America. These scenes are always plotted exactly for a viewer near the center of North America (at latitude 40° north, longitude 90° west). For clarity, the Moon is always drawn three times its actual apparent size.
    Sky & Telescope diagram
    Tuesday, November 3
  • The Moon, barely past full, crosses the southeastern edge of the Pleiades tonight for parts of the southern U.S. and points south, from roughly 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. EST. Maps and timetables.
  • Jupiter's Red Spot transits around 10:06 p.m. EST.

    Wednesday, November 4

  • The bright Moon this evening (evening for North America) balances between the two brightest stars of Taurus: Aldebaran and Beta Tauri, as shown at right.
  • Jupiter's moon Io casts its tiny black shadow onto Jupiter's face from 7:17 to 9:26 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. (For a list of all such events among Jupiter's moons this month, good worldwide, see the November Sky & Telescope, page 47.)

    Thursday, November 5

  • Bright Capella, shining in the northeast, and equally bright Vega, in the west-northwest, will be balanced at exactly the same height above your horizon sometime around 8 or 9 p.m., depending on where you live in your time zone. How accurately can you time this event for your point on Earth?
  • Telescope users in the American West can watch Jupiter's moon Ganymede partially occult Io from 9:06 to 9:13 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.

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    		 November 01, 2009 8:25 AM

    As the Moon wanes further, it rises later. By Saturday November 8th it's down next to Mars.
    Sky & Telescope diagram
    Friday, November 6

  • Orion preview. Look low in the east around 9 or 10 p.m. (depending on where you live in your time zone), and you'll see the bright winter constellation Orion already on the rise. Above Orion is orange Aldebaran. Above Aldebaran is the fingertip-size Pleiades star cluster. The waning Moon is shining to Orion's left in the middle of Gemini, as shown at right.
  • Jupiter's Red Spot transits around 7:36 p.m. EST.

    Saturday, November 7

  • Jupiter's moon Europa reappears from eclipse out of Jupiter's shadow around 9:17 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. A small telescope will show it swelling into view just a little east of the planet.


    • http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/ataglance/
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