Night sky events, November 2020! What can you see in the sky this month.

Night Sky Events, Starry November – Sunil Kumar Behera

At the end of October, we all witnessed the Blue Moon. It was called so because it was the 2nd full moon in a single month (October). It was also known as Halloween Blue Moon because it fell on 31st October on Halloween. Last blue moon that occurred on Halloween was during World War II. For star gazers and selenophiles (those who love the moon) it was an awesome experience.

All over the world people saw the moon along with the red planet, Mars. But in my city (Behrampur, Odisha), people witnessed another phenomenon associated with the moon i.e. moon halo. A ring made of ice crystals around the moon, and the best part was that Mars was exactly on the Halo ring of moon.

On November 2, the Moon was between the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters. Because of the brightness of the moon it was difficult to see the clusters of stars in Hyades, but only Aldebaran of this cluster is visible.
On November 7 , Andromeda Galaxy will be visible all night long. Even with a small telescope, or binoculars we can see it as a fuzzy big star.

On November 10 , planet Mercury will be at its greatest western elongation. On that day in the morning it will reach a maximum angle of 19 degrees from the Sun, and look brighter. Locating Mercury is a little tricky. On that morning around 5:00am, first find the crescent moon in the eastern sky, and below it you will find a bright celestial object, Venus, and below that you will find a faint yellowish orange dot. That is Mercury.

On November 12 , we will witness Northern Taurids meteor shower peak. Taurids meteor shower occurs form 19th October to 10th December. On 12th November we have a peak of about 15 meteor streaks per hour.
On November 13 , the crescent moon will meet Venus. With a telescope or binoculars both appear crescent shaped. Look towards the Eastern horizon just before sunrise.

On November 17, we will witness the Leonids Meteor shower. It occurs from 3 to 5 December every year. On 17th November we have peak of about 20 meteors per hour. On November 19 , the crescent moon will meet Jupiter. On this day we will witness Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn forming a small triangle.

On 30th November, we have full beaver moon along with Penumbral Lunar Eclipse. It will be visible in North America, South America, some parts of Europe and Asia. One a few north western states/cities in India would be able to see this phenomenal lunar eclipse. Only the brightness of the moon will decrease a little bit.