The Night Sky in November 2023

For more details please consult – Astronomy – Sun – Moon – Eclipses (timeanddate.com) and In-The-Sky.org

Overview

November signals the official start of Winter. With the change to GMT there is a noticeable change in the length of day and night.

The Moon 

Last Quarter 5th November at 0837   New Moon 13th November at 0532

First Quarter 20th November at 2050  Full Moon  27th November at 2016

The Planets   Sunrise on 15th October is at 0730 and sets at 1609   

               Mercury   Venus    Moon    Mars    Jupiter   Saturn   Uranus

Rise         0910        0304       1030    0738     1537      1349      1554

Set          1631        1455       1648     1638    0612      2331      0727

In summary   

In summary – Mercury will be a challenging object in the morning twilight. Venus will stand out for a number of hours before dawn. Mars will be a difficult object to view in the morning twilight.  Jupiter is close to opposition and will be visible from 1800 until 0430. Saturn will be an evening object visible from 1800 until 2200. Uranus will be an evening object visible for most of the hours of darkness.

Meteor Showers November hosts two meteor showers:

1) Taurids – around the 1st to 6th of November – this is a short shower but the particles are quite ‘large’. The Taurids tend to be few in number but they make up for this by being bright slow moving and often quite colourful, with occasional fireballs. In 2023 with a last quarter Moon this will interfere somewhat with viewing this shower. This shower does contain a number of very bright ‘fireball’ meteors so they are worth looking out for.

2) Leonids – on the 16th, 17th and 18th November – another annual shower that usually puts on a good show of 50 to 100 meteors every hour. These particles are fast moving and ‘small’ and so the meteors are quite faint. In 2023 with a first quarter Moon setting at around midnight there is a good opportunity to view this shower after midnight when Leo is high in the sky.

Bright Comet  

For further news on upcoming bright Comets please browse with website ….. https://in-the-sky.org/data/comets.php

Other phenomena to look out for

The Noctilucent Clouds season is now over but it has been a very good year for spotting the Tricky Lady [Northern Lights].

Also, the solar activity is still on the upswing towards solar maximum in 2024 or 2025, so if have a Solar Filter check out the daily changes to Sunspots.

Night Sky View

Rendering from Carte du Ciel – Skycharts. en:start [Skychart] (ap-i.net)