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If the weather is nice in your area Sunday night (November 11) until the end of next week, you will have the opportunity to see what are probably for most people the three "objects" most requested "to consider. a telescope: the moon and the planets Saturn and Mars.
Regarding the planets, remember that in the middle and at the end of the summer, we had four bright planets draped well in the evening sky. Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars were distributed from south-west to south-east. But since then, Venus has pbaded in the morning sky, while Jupiter is too close to the sun to be seen.
This leaves us now only Saturn and Mars to watch after sunset. In a month, it will be Saturn's turn to leave as well. This weekend, the moon will visit the "Ringed Wonder" and will then visit Mars on Thursday. Let's take a closer look at the two combinations, starting with the moon and Saturn. [The Brightest Planets in November’s Night Sky: How to See Them]
Moon visits Saturn
It will soon be time to bid farewell to the centerpiece of the solar system, the magnificent planet with the Saturn Rings. We will have about a month before it starts to disappear in the sunset lights. And Sunday will be one of the last opportunities for many to make a positive identification because it will be close to a crescent moon. Wait about an hour after sunset, then focus on the southwest horizon.
Four months have elapsed since the new phase of the moon and 18% of illumination, hovering at nearly 20 degrees above the horizon. As your closed fist is about 10 degrees wide, this lunar arc will appear almost "two fists" upwards. Once you have spotted the moon, notice a bright, lonely "star" shining with a yellowish-white hue and serene lower right. This will be the solar system version of the "lord of the rings". Of course, make sure in advance that there are no tall trees or buildings that can interfere with the sight of these two celestial bodies. After all, the two will quickly lower as the sky darkens and will remain visible an hour and a half before disappearing under the horizon.
Sure, you can only see the famous Saturn Rings with a telescope, although some take a look at them using ultra-powerful twin binoculars stabilized (or stabilized by an image) . But to get a definitive view, you will need an eyepiece magnifying at least 30 times. Larger instruments will provide more enjoyable images. Through a 6-inch telescope with a power of 150, the view is quite spectacular; with a 10 inch to 250 horsepower, the view is breathtaking. But do see yourself as soon as possible in the evening, as our atmosphere is much more turbulent near the horizon. as Saturn descends into the southwestern sky, its image will appear to be "deformed" or become somewhat distorted.
Alone
After leaving Saturn's surroundings, the moon will be heading east, against the stars in the background, and on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights, it will be up to him only. For the owner of a telescope, the moon is perhaps the most interesting of all the objects in the sky because it is close enough to be really well seen. Even a simple pair of binoculars with 7 powers will present precise features on its surface. Check the area especially around the line that separates the light from the dark (called the "terminator") and you will see the craters and other lunar features come off in bold because they are partially in the air. 39; shadow.
Every night, more and more of the lunar surface lights up and the crescent gradually widens. Finally, on Thursday night, the moon will travel to another planet. It will be Mars, the red planet.
Moon visits Mars
Incidentally, while most almanacs and calendars will indicate Thursday (November 15) on the evening of the first quarter (half) moon, this is not entirely correct. This is because the timing of the first quarter phase is at 14:54 GMT, or 9:54 pm Eastern time. It is at this point that the moon is illuminated at 50% and the terminator appears straight. But at this point, the moon is below the horizon for North America. When we arrive in the evening hours, the moon will be several hours after the first quarter; it will be illuminated at 53% and the terminator will no longer be straight, but slightly convex.
About 3 degrees in the upper left of the moon, tonight you will see Mars, which continues to move away from the Earth. As we call Mars the "red" planet, you will see that it is shining more and more with a yellowish orange hue. This coloration is due to the rust of iron oxide that covers much of the Martian surface. Here on Earth, we have something quite similar to the colors of the famous Painted Desert in Arizona. Yet, the yellow-orange color seemed to suggest blood to the old observers, and since the "wandering stars" we call the planets were named after the ancient deities, it seemed appropriate to name this topaz traveler as the "wandering star". after the god of war.
Frank Melillo of Holtsville, Long Island, New York, pictured Mars on the evening of October 31 (Halloween). He writes: "I pictured Mars that night and I joined him here." Yes, he's gibbous now and it's almost three days before the full moon. "Usually, Mars appears gibbous three months before and after the opposition, Mars will be around until the next Mare Tyrrhenum and Mare Cimmerium dominate the disc as a long dark band on the disc, with a diameter of to reach 12 seconds of arcs. "
Source: Frank Melillo
On November 1, Mars blazed to a magnitude of -0.6 a distance of 73.4 million (118.2 million kilometers) from the Earth . But by the end of the month, it will be 20.5 million miles away from us (nearly 33 million km) and will therefore have dropped significantly to magnitude 0, or only about a third as bright as it is. He had appeared at the end of July (lower magnitudes are brighter). Unfortunately, a huge dust storm on both sides of the surface masked most of the surface of Mars at the time. The storm has since disappeared, but the apparent size of Mars seems to have only 40% of the size of what it was closer to the Earth. Nevertheless, some observers such as Frank J. Melillo, of Holtsville, New York, still take pictures of good quality.
From that time, Mars will continue to contract and darken as its distance from the Earth increases. From here the beginning of 2019, even a large telescope will have difficulty in bringing out the characteristics of the surface. From here, Mars will be more than a tiny point.
Joe Rao is an instructor and guest speaker at the Hayden Planetarium in New York. He writes on astronomy for Natural History magazine, The Farmers' Almanac and other publications. He is also a weather forecaster for Verizon FiOS1 News in the Lower Hudson Valley in New York. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. Original article on Space.com.
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