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Chances are, you will come across a few products during the month that are named after a celestial object. One notable brand is Subaru cars. Their badge consists of six stars, one of which is now more prominent, and is the badge adopted by a conglomeration established by six Japanese manufacturers in the 1950s. Subaru is also the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus .
The compact swarm is often better known as the Seven Sisters and is now visible above the eastern horizon after dark, with five or six of its brightest members easily visible on first hit. eye. Some observers have suggested that it looks like a tiny version of The Plow, which is a pretty good description.
If a few additional stars can be spotted with the naked eye, it is with binoculars that the Pleiades are truly spectacular. The field is studded with many sparkling shards of cut crystal and the blue-white light of these suns hints at their youth.
The cluster is about 115 million years old and is about 445 light years away, so the light we see this month began its journey just before Galileo was the first to sketch the Pleiades in through a telescope in the winter of 1609/10. A drawing from his great work Siderius Nuncius shows a few dozen stars.
We now know over a thousand individuals in the group, all born in the same region of space. Over time, the gravitational influence of our galaxy will disrupt the cluster and the Pleiades will separate. Long exposure photographs show a scene shrouded in gas and dust lit by starlight, but it is a chance encounter with an interstellar cloud as the embryonic material from the cluster dissipated there. for a long time.
Because they lie close to the celestial equator, the Pleiades are visible around the world and are woven into various myths, besides having descriptive names such as those listed in Foclóir Réalteolaíochta of An Gúm as a tÉillín (“brood” or “clutch”), a Streoillín (“drag line”) and a Tréidín (“flock”). Indeed, the resemblance to a flock of birds is noted by many ancient cultures.
The Pleiades were often associated with the onset of cold day or feast months for the souls of the dead, as their peak at midnight was on the dawn of winter and, for the Druids, the feast of Samhain. The appearance of the cluster is still being assessed by some indigenous peoples to predict whether it will be too wet or dry to plant crops, while they would have also marked off the navigation season in Mediterranean regions.
Taurus is another important star cluster called the Hyades. This more scattered group has a V-shaped pattern pointing away from the orange star Aldebaran, which itself is not a member as it is only half as far away. The Hyades are much older than the Pleiades and are a laboratory for testing theories of stellar evolution.
In Greek myth, the Pleiades are the daughters of Atlas and Pleione, with six of the seven gods who marry. The remaining daughter Merope is said to have disappeared after her marriage to a mortal. Interestingly, we find a reference to this “lost” Pleiad in stories around the world. Some have suggested that the star has suffered a real loss of brightness in the past, but other accounts mention a different Pleiades missing. The enigma continues, just as the sisters-in-law continue to captivate and enchant these evenings.
The last quarter moon falls on November 8, the new moon on the 15th and the first quarter on the 22nd, the full moon on the 30th coinciding with a partial penumbra lunar eclipse.
These types of eclipses are more subtle because the moon only dives into the more diffuse outer parts of the Earth’s shadow cast into space.
The eclipse begins at 7:32 am on the 30th, but you won’t notice anything until the moon sets at 8:12 am It’s more of a hope to be honest and relies on reducing the moon’s glare. when it’s low, which can help emphasize any very slight discoloration near the top of its disc. We will miss the eclipse maximum at 9:42 a.m. as it occurs after moonset from here.
Mercury is visible in the morning sky throughout November, but is highest above the southeast horizon at around 6:45 a.m. on the 10 a.m. It can be found in the lower left of Venus and near Spica at this time, but it is a bit brighter than the star. The Moon also serves as a nearby guide on the mornings of the 13th and 14th.
Venus rises three hours before the Sun during the month and dominates the eastern sky before the first dawn redness appears. It seems to reduce the gap with Mercury on a daily basis but does not approach more than 12 degrees (a little more than a fist at arm’s length) on the 13. Their separation remains static for about a week before widening again. when Mercury plunges towards the sun.
Mars pulls back in the rearview mirror so to speak, as Earth has now passed it in our faster orbit. But the planet is still smoldering bright orange in the eastern sky as soon as darkness falls and remains visible until the early hours of the morning. The gibbous moon is near Mars on the evening of the 25th.
Jupiter and Saturn fit into the same low-powered binocular field of view in early November, but are only half that distance apart by the end of the month, as the gap between them is slowly narrowing. Both planets can be found in the southwest on these evenings and go to bed after 8 p.m. Look for them at the top right of the Moon on the 19th.
Two meteor showers active in November are the Leonids and the Northern Taurids. The rates of the former are normally very low when it peaks on the 16th, but reach storm levels every 33 years or so when the associated mother comet returns to the inner solar system, which then occurs in 2032.
The northern Taurids peak on the night of November 11 and generally exhibit low rates as well. But they can create surprises and sometimes produce bright, slow fireballs.
Space flight
A new launch date for the next Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station was set shortly after the October article was published. The mission is now slated to take off on November 11 and will transport four additional members of the final expedition crew to the station.
The ISS Morning Passes run until November 9 after which it goes into the evening sky starting on the 20th. Predictions for your location can be calculated on Heavens Above.
Chang’e, named after the Chinese goddess of the moon, is the Chinese lunar exploration series that began in 2007 when Chang’e 1 reached lunar orbit. Chang’e 5 is a robotic sample return mission slated to launch in late November. Current plans are to collect approximately 2kg of material below the Moon’s surface for later return to Earth.
John Flannery is a long-time amateur astronomer with an interest in the history and traditions of the sky as well as astronomical phenomena that can be observed with the naked eye. He is a member of the Irish Astronomical Society
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