Welcome to Observing With Webb, where a high school astronomy teacher tells you what you’re looking at, why it’s so cool, and what you should check out later this month…at night.

Naked-eye PLANETS

Sunset

Saturn – About 30˚ above the horizon in the S. Fairly dim, but still brighter than all the stars around it.
Jupiter – SUPER bright in the SE after sunset. Just find the brightest point of light in that direction, and you’ve got it.

Throughout the night

Saturn & Jupiter – Starting off in the SE, with brightest Jupiter on the left and dimmer Saturn about 40˚ to the right, these two march westward through the night, with Saturn setting around 11pm and Jupiter setting around 2am.
Mars – Rises at about 8:30pm in the beginning of the month, and just after sunset by the end. Look East early in the evening for a dull reddish dot in the sky, above Orion and between the tips of Taurus’s horns.

Morning

Mars – By morning, Mars will have moved to the S or SW, still between Taurus’s horns above Orion, about 2/3 of the way up the sky.

EVENTS

First Quarter Moon – 1st (Visible until midnight)

Evening Gibbous (Mostly lit, after Sunset)

Full Moon – 8th (Visible all night)

Waning Gibbous (Mostly lit, rises later at night)

Last Quarter Moon – 16th (Visible midnight into the morning)

Morning Crescents (look East in the AM)

New Moon – 23rd (darkest skies)

Evening Crescents (look West after Sunset)

First Quarter Moon – 30th (Visible until midnight)

4th – CLOSE ENCOUNTER – Moon, Jupiter – A waxing gibbous Moon is below Jupiter by just 3˚. Visible all night.

6th – Daylight Savings Time Ends

8th – TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE – Only the West coast of the U.S. can pretty much see all of it, with the rest of the U.S. seeing only portions before sunrise. Here’s the game plan:

4:09am EST – Partial Eclipse Begins – Just look West to find the Full Moon, and watch as the Earth’s shadow appears to nibble on the Moon from the top down, but a little off-center to the left. This phase will last about an hour, and the Moon will drop about 10˚ closer to the horizon. (You might hear that the penumbral portion of the eclipse starts before this. While true, it is essentially undetectable with the naked eye.)

5:16am EST – Totality Begins – Now the umbra of the Earth’s shadow is completely engulfing the Moon, and only the light from all the sunrises and sunsets on Earth are illuminating our orbital partner’s surface, making it appear anywhere from dark yellow to orange to red to brown. This phase will last almost an hour and a half, leading into dawn for those of us on the east coast.

6:42am EST – Totality ends, Partiality begins again – now the shadow leaves the Moon, starting to expose its surface from the top down.

7:49am EST – Partial Eclipse Ends, but the Sun is up and the Moon is setting.

Other things to notice during the eclipse

As the Moon gets darker, more and more stars will be visible
The Pleiades are above the Moon
Taurus is up and to the left of the Moon
Orion is off to the left of Taurus

10th – CLOSE ENCOUNTER – Moon, Mars – The Moon is 6˚ above and to the right of Mars. Visible in the NE around 8:30pm, and high in the W by sunrise.

17th – 18th – Leonid Meteor Shower – This annual, weak (10-15 per hour), meteor shower can have some wonderful years. Could this be one of those years? MAYBE. Some predict we could get up to 250-300 meteors per hour after midnight on the 18th. Am I banking on it? No. But am I going out anyway? Absolutely. I wouldn’t want to miss it, and I don’t need to set anything up to witness a meteor storm.

Some advice for watching:

Find a dark location and lie down in a reclining chair or hammock

Look around Leo’s head. That is where the radiant is - where the meteors will appear to be coming from.

The strategy to observe this year is to get out there whenever you can, but the later you stay up, the more you’ll see, since the radiant will be higher and you’ll be closer to the peak.

Check the weather to see if the skies will be clear

Adapt your eyes to the dark by staying away from light sources or using a red light if you need to look at a star chart or not trip over something.

If you’re feeling extra nerdy, do a scientific meteor count (S&T and IMO)

That said, you never know when a nice meteor will burn up, to take a nice look at the sky in general, noting that the meteors will appear to go from the radiant in the head of Leo and outward.

25th – Thanksgiving – After feasting, get out and find the Moon and 3 planets! A two day old Moon will be visible just after sunset, but not for long, maybe an hour, in the SW. Get a clear view of the horizon. As dusk darkens, find brightest light Jupiter in the SE, bright-ish light Saturn in the South, and Mars very low in the ENE, rising as the night progresses. Now is also a good time to use that scope for Andromeda and the Pleiades.

28th – 29th – CLOSE ENCOUNTER – Moon, Saturn – The crescent Moon is just 7˚ below Saturn on the 28th, and 10˚ to the left of Saturn on the 29th. Visible after sunset in the SSW, before 11pm.

CONSTELLATIONS...

Use a sky map from www.skymaps.com to help you out.

After Dinner:

Pegasus & Andromeda - Look pretty much straight up you’ll be able to see the Great Square of Pegasus, with Andromeda curving off of one corner. If your skies are decently dark, you might catch the faint fuzz that is the Andromeda Galaxy.

Before Bed:

Andromeda, Perseus, Triangulum, Aries – Find Pegasus off to the West a little bit to find the cornucopia shaped Andromeda again. Keep following the cornucopia shape to find Perseus, which has kind of a similar shape, except opening up toward the southern horizon and the Pleiades. Below Perseus and Andromeda will be Triangulum, a small thin triangle, and Aries the Ram, which looks more like a curved walking cane on its side.

Before Work:

Orion – Look southwest to find the vertical bow-tie that is Orion the Hunter.

Don’t forget this podcast is found on my Podbean page, Stitcher, and iTunes. There’s also a video version on my YouTube Channel and I can be found on Twitter and Instagram as @mrwebbpv. The Pequea Valley Planetarium and its events and updates are on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as @pvplanetarium.