What's Up In The Sky Now?

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The weather is turning colder and hopefully the skies remain clear as the two stars of the solar system will remain visible most of the month.

MERCURY will be a ”no show” this month as it reaches conjunction with the sun early this month and will remain hidden from view.

VENUS is just emerging from conjunction with the sun and like Mercury will be too close to the sun this month to see.

EARTH is in transition this month. Colors are springing out and the blazing temperatures we experienced this summer are beginning to cool down.

MARS rises well before darkness this month in the east and scoots across Taurus . Mars will shine much more brightly this month reaching a magnitude of close to -2. Even though Mars is very bright this month it is not as close as previous years.

JUPITER is still the big dog in the sky this month shinning brightly at -3. It is starting to pull away from us so it will be shrinking slightly in size. Besides the belts surrounding Jupiter, watching the moons circle this planet is always fun.

SATURN is still outpacing Jupiter and slightly higher in the southern sky at night. Saturn has a close encounter with the moon early in the month so look early as this most interesting of the planets will be setting much earlier as November proceeds.

URANUS is rarely talked about but it also has a close encounter with a full moon on November 8th. Not the brightest at magnitude 6, the coloring of this planet will make it a lot easier to spot in a star field.

NEPTUNE is hanging around and very close to its big brother Jupiter this month. This bluish colored planet can be quickly spotted just under the Circlet of Pisces. On one night ranging from east to west you can easily spot Uranus, Jupiter, Neptune and Saturn in the southern sky.

• First Quarter, November 01
• Full Moon, November 08
• Last Quarter, November 16
• New Moon, November  23
• 2nd First Quarter, November 30