SkyEye

Welcome to SkyEye, your guide to this month's celestial events.

November 2010

All times and dates are given in Universal Time (UT).
Nightly darkness estimates are calculated for 45° N and 30° S.
Like total solar eclipses, lunar occultation events can be seen only from limited regions on Earth (and sometimes not at all if the occultation takes place during daylight hours). However, the Moon will appear close in the sky to its "target" for some hours either side of the actual occultation, regardless of where you are.

Date		Event
1	Mon
2	Tue
3	Wed	Perigee
4	Thu
5	Fri	Moon occults Venus: visible from about 06:20 UT in southern Africa.
6	Sat	New Moon
7	Sun
8	Mon
9	Tue
10	Wed
11	Thu
12	Fri
13	Sat	First Quarter Moon
14	Sun
15	Mon	Apogee
16	Tue
17	Wed	The waxing gibbous Moon badly interferes with the Leonids (theoretical peak activity: from 21:15 UT).
18	Thu	Neptune at east quadrature
19	Fri
20	Sat
21	Sun	The third Full Moon in a season containing four is traditionally called a Blue Moon.
21	Sun	Light skies make this is an impossible year for the Alpha Monocerotids.
22	Mon
23	Tue
24	Wed
25	Thu
26	Fri
27	Sat
28	Sun	Last Quarter Moon
29	Mon
30	Tue	Perigee

The Solar System

The word planet is derived from the Greek word for "wanderer." Unlike the background stars, planets seem to move around the sky, keeping mostly to a narrow track called the ecliptic, the path of the Sun across the stars. Dwarf planets and small solar-system bodies including comets, are not so constrained, often moving far above or below the ecliptic.

Sun: Libra » Scorpius » Ophiuchus
Although Ophiuchus is not a member of the zodiac, the ecliptic passes through it.
Mercury: Libra » Scorpius » Ophiuchus » Sagittarius
Never very high for northern observers, Mercury vaults into the sunset twilight when viewed from southern latitudes.
Venus: Virgo
The "morning star" appears early in the month and rises rapidly in the east ahead of the Sun.
Mars: Scorpius » Ophiuchus
On 10 November, look for the red planet near Antares whose name means the "rival of Mars".
Jupiter: Aquarius
This bright planet sets early in the morning.
Saturn: Virgo
The ringed planet rises an hour or two after its brighter neighbour, Jupiter, sets.
Uranus: Pisces
This mysterious world sets alongside Jupiter after midnight.
Neptune: Capricornus
A small telescope is necessary to view the most distant planet in the solar system. It reaches east quadrature on 18 November and sets before midnight.

The Celestial Sphere

Constellations are patterns of stars in the sky. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) recognises 88 different constellations. The brightest stars as seen from the Earth are easy to spot but do you know their proper names? With a set of binoculars you can look for fainter objects such as nebulae and galaxies or some of the closest stars to the Sun.

Descriptions of the sky for observers in both the northern and southern hemispheres are available for the following times this month. Subtract one hour from your local time if summer (daylight savings) time is in effect.

Local Time	Northern Hemisphere	Southern Hemisphere
1730 hours (1830 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
1930 hours (2030 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
2130 hours (2230 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
2330 hours (0030 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
0130 hours (0230 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
0330 hours (0430 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
0530 hours (0630 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S

For More Information...

Consult our online glossary for non-technical explanations of many of the astronomical terms used in these pages.
Blue moons, eclipses, the dates of Easter and much more can be found at the Interactive Astronomy Pages.
For more information about the objects and events described in SkyEye, visit these astronomy-related sites.

Credits

Much of this information can be found in this month's issue of your favourite amateur astronomy magazine available in your local bookshop. Another excellent source is the current edition of the Astronomical Calendar by Guy Ottewell and published by the Universal Workshop at Furman University.

The SkyEye banner features a collision of galaxy clusters and is courtesy of NASA, ESA, CXC, M. Bradac (University of California, Santa Barbara) and S. Allen (Stanford University). When MACS J0025.4-1222 was formed, gravity caused the ordinary matter in the colliding galaxy clusters to slow down whereas the dark matter, which at best interacts only weakly with itself, continued on its original course. Thus, this object provides both confirmation of the existence of dark matter and a further understanding of its properties. This image is a composite of Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory data where dark matter is coloured blue (mapped by Hubble using gravitational lensing techniques) and ordinary matter is coloured pink (mapped by Chandra detecting X-rays from gas heated by the collision).