November 2024: Exciting Celestial Events for you to Explore
What’s in the Sky this Month
The highlight for November 2024 is Mars and Jupiter.
November 2024 this month , Mercury is seen in the early evening, Mars brightening, and the giant planets Jupiter and Saturn adding to the spectacle. Jupiter in particular is reaching its best apparition in a decade for Northern Hemisphere observers.
November 2024 Planets from dusk to dawn
Mercury
Let’s start soon after sunset. Mercury hugs the southwest horizon and remains easily visible throughout the first half of the month, a steady magnitude –0.3. The planet is 2° high 30 minutes after sunset.
Mercury wanders through southern Ophiuchus, reaching its greatest eastern elongation on the 16th, 23° east of the Sun. It sets a little over an hour after sunset. This is the best Mercury will be this month. A telescope shows a 62-percent-lit disk spanning 7″. By the 20th, Mercury is exactly 50 percent lit.
After that, Mercury begins to dim in earnest. By the 23rd, it shines at magnitude 0. A week later it’s plummeted to magnitude 1.4 and is lost from view.
Venus November 2024
Venus treks across the Milky Way and is easy to spot soon after sunset, starting the month at magnitude –4. Check out the planet an hour after sunset with Ophiuchus as a backdrop in the darkening sky. Venus remains visible about two hours after sunset.
Blazing Venus visits the Archer this month, standing close to globular cluster M22 on Nov. 18. Shortly before this date, Mercury reaches its best for the month. Credit: Astronomy: Roen Kelly
Venus treks across the Milky Way and is easy to spot soon after sunset, starting the month at magnitude –4. Check out the planet an hour after sunset with Ophiuchus as a backdrop in the darkening sky. Venus remains visible about two hours after sunset.
By the 11th it stands 1.5° south of M8, the Lagoon Nebula. Grab binoculars for a stunning view. On Nov. 18, scan 1.6° north of Venus to spy M22, one of the finest globular clusters in Sagittarius, glowing at 5th magnitude.
By the end of November, the planet has gained 0.1 magnitude and remains up 3 hours after sunset. A telescope shows a 17″-wide disk now 68 percent lit.
Saturn November 2024
As nightfall descends, Saturn stands high in the southern sky among the faint stars of Aquarius. It shines at magnitude 0.8. It’s perfectly placed for observation, remaining above 35° in altitude for a few hours. It stays within 2° of Lambda (λ) Aquarii all month.
Saturn’s rings appear gossamer-thin to us now. This month the planet’s tilt reaches 5.2°, the widest since March, and the narrow axis of the rings spans 3″. The long axis stretches over 10 times that: roughly 40″. By the end of this year, the tilt diminishes again to 3.9°. Saturn’s disk also shrinks this month, from 18″ to 17″, while its polar diameter dips to 16″.
Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, is an easy target for any telescope, at magnitude 8.5. It stands near the planet Nov. 19/20, and 27/28.
The smaller inner moons undergo transits, although these are difficult to see visually. Combine a telescope larger than 10 inches with high-speed video capture and good seeing for a chance at viewing these events.
Tenth-magnitude Tethys transits beginning in the evening on Nov. 24, and 26. Similarly bright Dione undergoes transits the evenings of the 4th, 15th (visible only from the eastern half of the U.S.), 23rd, and 26th. On the 23rd, Rhea transits the southern pole of Saturn prior to the Dione event. On the 26th, Dione leads Tethys across the disk. Not all events are listed.
Iapetus is close to Saturn the evening of Nov. 1, as it passes through superior conjunction. It lies 43″ due south of Saturn, glowing near 11th magnitude. Track Iapetus until it reaches eastern elongation 8.5′ east of Saturn on the 20th, when it glows near 12th magnitude.
Neptune November 2024
is in Pisces, well placed for evening observing some 14° northeast of Saturn and near the Circlet asterism. The distant planet shines at magnitude 7.7. Binoculars will show it forming a triangle with 20 and 24 Piscium, a pair of 6th-magnitude stars about 5° southeast of Lambda Psc in the Circlet. Closer to Neptune is a pair of 8th- and 9th-magnitude stars sitting side by side. The planet’s motion relative to these is evident from night to night.
A telescope reveals a 2″-wide disk with a bluish hue. A telescope is also needed to watch the Moon hide Neptune in an occultation the evening of Nov. 11, best seen from the eastern half of the U.S. Twilight will interfere farther west. The International Occultation Timing Association provides local timing of the event at www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/planets/planets.
Uranus November 2024
reaches opposition Nov. 16 and is visible all night. It’s in western Taurus, about 6.5° southwest of M45, the Pleiades. At opposition, Uranus stands due south at local midnight; the planet rises by 7 p.m. local daylight time on the 1st and three hours earlier (after the change to standard time) by the 30th. It moves slowly retrograde this month. The pre-dawn hours are a great time to view Uranus’ 4″-wide disk with a telescope.
The easiest way to spot the magnitude 5.6 planet is with binoculars. Scan south of M45 to find 6th-magnitude stars 13 and 14 Tauri, aligned east-west. Uranus is 2.3° west and slightly south of 13 Tau on Nov. 1. The gap increases to 3.5° by the 30th. Uranus and 13 Tau are nearly the same brightness.
Jupiter November 2024
Jupiter rises by 8:30 p.m. local daylight time on Nov. 1 and by the 30th it’s already up as twilight falls. Moving retrograde through central Taurus, Jupiter dominates the night sky. It’s the best the gas giant has been for Northern Hemisphere observers in about a decade.
Jupiter brightens to magnitude –2.8 this month. At midmonth it stands 10° northeast of Aldebaran and nearly 19° northwest of Betelgeuse. A waning gibbous Moon joins Jupiter in Taurus Nov. 16 and 17.
Jupiter remains above the horizon for some 15 hours, allowing time to watch a full rotation (just under 10 hours) in a single night. By the 30th, the disk spans 48″. Any telescope will show the pair of cloudy dark equatorial belts straddling the equator. If the Great Red Spot isn’t visible, just wait a few hours. The wealth of detail visible is amazing — wait for those moments when our atmosphere settles and detail jumps out.
Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto transit in front of or become hidden behind the disk from time to time. Here’s a short review of some — but not all — of the month’s events.
On Nov. 2/3, the giant shadow of Ganymede crosses the south polar region from 10:39 p.m. to 12:44 a.m. EDT. The transit is underway as Jupiter rises for the Mountain and Pacific time zones. (Note: Clocks change to Standard Time at 2 a.m. on the 3rd.) Shortly after 1 a.m. CDT (also 1 a.m. EST), Ganymede itself transits.
Europa and its shadow traverse the planet Nov. 3/4. The shadow appears at 10:30 p.m. EST and Europa follows around 12:10 a.m. EST (on the 4th in the Eastern time zone only).
Ganymede and Europa repeat this sequence Nov. 9/10 and 10/11, respectively.
Io’s shadow begins a transit on the 15th at 10:45 p.m. EST, followed 33 minutes later by the moon itself. Notice the gap between the shadow and the moon — it’s diminishing as Jupiter approaches opposition. By Nov. 29/30, Io’s shadow appears at 2:35 a.m. EST, just 12 minutes ahead of Io itself.
Mars November 2024
is growing in brilliance in the morning sky as it crosses Cancer the Crab. As November opens, Mars glows at magnitude 0.1; it brightens to magnitude –0.5 by the 30th. Mars rises around 11:00 p.m. local daylight time on the 1st. By the end of the month, the Red Planet rises at 8:30 p.m. local time and stands 40° high in the eastern sky at local midnight.
Mars passes 7′ north of 5th-magnitude Mu (μ) Cancri on the morning of the 2nd. Later in November, Mars stands 2° from the Beehive Cluster (M44). A waning gibbous Moon joins Mars in Cancer Nov. 20 and 21.
During the month Mars’ disk grows from 9″ to 12″ and increases from 89 percent to 93 percent lit. The tiny disk is strongly affected by turbulence in Earth’s atmosphere, but observing when Mars is highest in the sky (early morning) and using a high-speed planetary video camera can remedy this. Video capture takes practice — start now so you’re ready for opposition early next year.
The Red Planet stands 70° high in the southern sky at 5 a.m. local time, with the following features visible at that time (determined for the mid-U.S.): Nov. 1 (local daylight time), Tharsis Ridge; Nov. 4 (local standard time), Valles Marineris; Nov. 9, Sinus Meridian; Nov. 16, Syrtis Major and the Hellas Basin; Nov. 24, Mare Cimmerium.
The Moon in November 2024
Meteors : Leonid
In November 2024 The annual Leonid meteor shower peaks Nov. 17 and is active between Nov. 6 and 30. The Full Moon on the 15th affects the visibility of this shower, so conditions are unfavorable for the peak. The zenithal hourly rate of 10 meteors per hour this year means that even by Nov. 16, very few shower members will be seen. Observing in the week prior to maximum is likely best, as the Moon will set earlier in the night and Leo rises near midnight. On Nov. 10, the Moon sets at local midnight just as Leo is rising in the east.
The Leonid meteor shower is associated with Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, which last reached perihelion in 1998.
November 2024 Finale for a Comet
Starting on the 19th of November 2024, there’s a whole hour of darkness before the Moon rises. But the comet’s increasing distance from both Sun and Earth combine to quickly fade it past 8th magnitude by month’s end as longer nights set in. Compare the fuzzball’s shape and light profile to globular clusters M14 and NGC 6760. Which one is most pinpoint toward the center?
First detected only 21 months ago, Tsuchinshan-ATLAS reminds us that the comet of the decade could still be looping in from the depths, awaiting discovery.
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is fading, but not before it crosses the rich star fields of Ophiuchus and Aquila