From shooting stars to a supermoon: November’s sky events

NewsScience NewsLook to the southeast before sunrise on 15 and 16 November and you can see Mars and Jupiter sitting about 1.2 degrees apart, close enough to spot with the naked eye, no telescope or binoculars are needed Look to the southeast before sunrise on 15 and 16 November and you can see Mars and Jupiter sitting about 1.2 degrees apart, close enough to spot with the naked eye, no telescope or binoculars are needed Lower levels of light pollution will give you a better view of the meteors.

It takes about 30 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the darkness, so keep that in mind when you travel.Mars and Jupiter In a few days, you will also get to see two planets, Mars and Jupiter, side by side. On 15 and 16 November, these planets will appear next to each other in the southeastern sky, creating a spectacle.Mars and Jupiter are separated by enormous distances in space.

Their closeness is a matter of alignment. The two planets sit at very different distances from Earth but fall along the same line of sight, so they look like neighbours from our side of the Solar System. The gap, however, is not fixed.

Over several consecutive mornings, the pair gradually draws closer before their positions shift and they begin to separate again.The two planets will be separated by about 1.2 degrees in the sky. That gap is slightly wider than the width of two full Moons placed next to each other, which is enough to be seen clearly without optical aid.

No telescope or binoculars will be necessary.Jupiter will be the easier of the two to pick out because it is the brighter of the pair. Mars, sitting nearby, has the reddish appearance that makes it recognisable to many observers.

Once you find Jupiter, Mars should be easy to locate just beside it.Both planets will be low in the sky, so an unobstructed view of the horizon matters more than height. Dark surroundings help. Streetlights and the glow from buildings wash out faint objects, and Mars is considerably dimmer than Jupiter.

Allow your eyes about 30 minutes to adjust before scanning the sky.The planets will be visible in the southeast, so face that direction in the period leading up to sunrise. A clear view of the horizon will help, since both planets will sit low in the sky during these mornings.The supermoon finale ">A full Moon rises over Vasquez Rocks Natural Area and Nature Center north of Los Angeles, California, on June 24, 2021.Credit: NASA/Preston Dyches This November ends with a full supermoon on 24 November.

The Moon’s orbit is slightly elliptical, so a full Moon near its closest point can look somewhat larger and brighter. NASA recommends looking towards the eastern horizon around sunset that evening, when the Moon rises. It is the first of three consecutive supermoons, with the next in December and the third in January.Voyager 1 reaches a distance milestone Well, that’s not all sky gazers should be celebrating this year.

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft reaches a distance of one light-day from Earth on 17 November. This makes it the first human-made object to travel that far. A light-day is the distance light covers in 24 hours. A radio message from Earth takes a full day to arrive, and a reply needs another day to return, making the round trip roughly 48 hours.NASA is marking the milestone on 17 November with its Shine Bright for Voyager’s Light-Day activation, which invites the public to celebrate this extraordinary accomplishment in space exploration.

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