Night sky events for the week of November 9, 2009

November 9, 2:22 AMFt. Lauderdale Science News ExaminerAnna Sanclement

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Hello Sky Watchers!

We start the week with a Last Quarter Moon on Monday the 9th weaning through the week to New Moon next week. Early Tuesday morning, before dawn, find the star Regulus at about 4 degrees to the upper left of the Moon.

The Orion Constellation starts peeking out of the eastern horizon between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. at the beginning of November. During that time, the Pleiades star cluster is already quite high in the eastern sky, just ahead of Orion. These winter stars and constellations are becoming visible earlier on in the night getting ready for their showcase in the coming months.

When Orion is higher in the sky, at around 10:00 p.m., it is a good time to take out a telescope and view it's beautiful nebula. The Orion Nebula can be found by looking below the constellations' three belt stars for the fuzzy patch of light. With a small telescope, a faint bluish haze can be easily detected. With a larger instrumet some of the filaments within the nebula can be distinguished and possibly even some different colors can be detected.

At dawn, about 30 minutes before sunrise on Thursday November 12th, look to the southeast to find the waning crescent moon a few degrees to the left of Saturn. On Friday the 14th a thinner crescent Moon will be lower on the southeast, just below to the right of the star Spica (binoculars may be needed top spot Spica). Then, on Sunday the 15th a sliver of a crescent Moon will be seen just barely above the eastern horizon with Venus shining to its left.

For the rest of the visible planets we will have Jupiter still appearing for a large part of the night and then it sets in the west at about midnight. Mars comes up between 10:00 and 11:00 p.m. just below the stars Castor and Pollux in the east. Before dawn Mars can be seen high in the southeastern sky. Saturn moves higher in the east-southeast at around dawn.

Don't forget the Leonid meteor shower that will begin around November 13th. It will peak on the 17th and 18th in the early morning hours. Read more about the Leonids on Catching the Leonid meteor shower.