Mars, Venus Reign This Month
Mars, Venus Reign This Month:
Mars and Venus present a treat to sky gazers in November, marking two memorable points of light at opposite ends of the sky. Mars reaches its brightest point early in the month and will be easy to find even while in the city. See our neighboring red planet now because it will not be this brilliant until 2018.
Look for Mars in the eastern sky after dark, as it is a brilliant, unmistakable orange-red. You can find it in the south after midnight, and you can see it in the western sky in the early morning hours.
Officially, the red planet reaches opposition on Monday, which means that from Earth's point of view, Mars is opposite from the sun. In other words, when the sun sets in the west, Mars rises in the east. Interestingly, the nearly full moon and Mars rise together Nov. 14.
The full moon -- and that can mean any full moon -- is always opposite the sun. By Thanksgiving, Mars sets earlier and rapidly becomes dimmer.
Facing south, when night arrives and Mars begins to enter stage left, Venus is exiting stage right. Find Venus deep in the south-southwestern sky at dark. While Mars has a distinctly orange-red tint, Venus is a very bright white.
Saturn rises in the east-northeast around 11:30 p.m. now, and by mid-month the great ringed planet will ascend the eastern heavens in the 10 p.m. hour. You can find this gaseous, giant planet in the constellation Cancer.
Jupiter races through the morning sky just ahead of the rising sun in the east-southeast. In the middle of the month, this gaseous giant planet rises about 6 a.m., and by month's end climbs the eastern horizon about 5:15 a.m. It's should be easy to see from the city.
The fleet Mercury follows Jupiter toward the end of the month and makes a cameo appearance ahead of the rising sun. Look for it hugging the horizon. This is not a good year for the reliable mid-November Leonid meteors, which are likely to be washed out by the moon.