This Weeks Sky at a Glance Some night sky sights for November 17 – 23 by Alan M. MacRobert Mike Broussard of Lousiana shot Comet ISON on the morning of November 14th using a 200mm lens on a DSLR. Click image for his animated gif of the comet rising through the trees as dawn brightened. Mike Broussard Comet ISON has brightened suddenly in the last few days to 5th magnitude as of November 15th — a popsicle comet with a round, sharp-edged, bright green head and a long, thin, dim tail. Its speeding sunward near Spica and Mercury low in the east just before dawn. It passes less than 2° from Spica on the mornings of November 17th and 18th for the Americas, accelerating every day toward its November 28th perihelion and trial by fire. Meanwhile, Comet Lovejoy glows only a little less bright much higher before dawn. Both comets are visible in binoculars despite moonlight returning to the morning sky. Theyre being detected naked-eye by skilled observers under good conditions. Finder charts for both. See our articles Comet ISON Comes to Life! and The Other Great Morning Comet. This is getting exciting! While were on the topic, Sky & Telescope and Celestron are sponsoring a Comet ISON photo contest with some serious prizes. Sunday, November 17 Comet ISON is within 2° of Spica this morning and Monday morning as seen from the Americas. Their closest approach, 1/3°, comes around 1h November 18th Universal Time, good timing for observers in the longitudes of eastern Europe and western Asia. Detailed chart. The full Moon this evening shines to the upper right of Aldebaran, and lower right of the delicate little Pleiades cluster. Monday, November 18 This evening look right of the just-past-full Moon for Aldebaran. Later in the evening, Orion rises below them. Tuesday, November 19 After 9 or 10 this evening, youll find the waning gibbous Moon shining inside a huge quadrilateral: Capella to the Moons upper left, Aldebaran to the Moons upper right, Betelgeuse closer to its lower right, and bright Jupiter far to its lower left. Wednesday, November 20 By late evening the waning Moon is up in the east. Its now part of a long, ragged, roughly horizontal snake. From right to left: Rigel in Orions foot in the east-southeast, Orions Belt, Betelgeuse, the Moon, Jupiter, Pollux, and above Pollux, Castor. Thursday, November 21 Jupiter is the bright star upper left of the Moon late this evening. Although they look close together, Jupiter is currently 1,660 times farther away. And Pollux and Castor, to Jupiters left and upper left, are 500,000 and 730,000 times farther than Jupiter! (at 34 and 52 light-years, respectively). Friday, November 22 The waning gibbous Moon is up in the east by about 10 p.m., depending on where you live. Look above it for bright Jupiter and (to Jupiters left) Pollux and Castor. To the Moons right twinkles Procyon. Much farther to the right, brighter Sirius is rising or soon to rise. Saturday, November 23 The eclipsing binary star Algol should be at minimum light, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.3, for a couple hours centered on 9:06 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. It takes several more hours to fade and to rebrighten. You may think you know Cassiopeia, but I bet youve never hunted its open cluster King 20 or teased apart the multiple star ADS 16795 just ½° to the clusters west. And, the charming double star Struve 3022 shines in the same telescopic field. See Sue Frenchs Deep-Sky Wonders in the November Sky & Telescope, page 56. From Sky & Telescope - The Weeks Sky at the Glance- skyandtelescope/
Posted on: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 15:13:35 +0000
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