November 2017 Planets!

All pictures are taken in the Middle of this Month, Let us start off with the evening skies.

When we mean evening, we mean like 6:30 PM (5:30 PM when daylight savings time ends!).

Saturn quickly lowers down in the skies towards the lingering mercury, at the start of the month, Saturn is at a height of 17° high in the SSW, by the end of the month, Saturn is at a very low 4° in the SW. Mercury doesn’t have much luck either, as it never goes above 3° at that time, but up to 6° at 5:00 PM on Nov 27. Mercury and Saturn shine at -0.2 and 0.5 magnitudes respectively, though.

As we move to the SSE, we see Neptune at a Magnitude 7.9. You can’t quite tell from the picture but there is a star about 0.7° away from the Blue Giant. The star shines at a 3.8 Magnitude, which makes Neptune easy spotting. The two keep moving more south.

Away from those two. Uranus doesn’t have many stars near it, and the closest ones are not much brighter than the planet itself is. Uranus shines at Magnitude 5.9.

Not much happens at Midnight either, as the two faraway Giants keep moving East, and Neptune Eventually sets at 1 AM and Uranus sets at 5 AM.

At 4 AM the red planet Mars appears, shining at Magnitude 1.7. though it will be easier to spot an hour later, at 7 AM, Mars appears already at the SE (It started in the East), at an astonishing 30° high!

“Jupiter, shining at Magnitude -1.7, is with Magnitude -3.9 Venus. Though Jupiter is three times bigger. “

Moving to 6:30 AM (7:30 AM if daylight savings time), comes more. at the start, Jupiter is at the very bottom of the horizon, shining at Magnitude -1.7 With Magnitude -3.9 Venus. Though Jupiter is three times bigger, they both make a beautiful duo. On Nov 13th, Jupiter and Venus are ¼ degrees away, fit both in a telescope with around 30 Magnification and you can see Jupiter’s moons tilting to the ecliptic. They won’t hit Venus because Venus is on a horizontal line with Jupiter,  but they also easily fit in a pair of Binoculars!

As the month passes Venus moves down to the Sun and Jupiter move up. You won’t see more conjunctions until January sadly, but its worth the wait!

Overall, there isn’t much else to see. Just the slow Leonids Meteor Shower. Roughly every thirty years though, they can be angry with 100s of meteors per hour, otherwise, its just 15. Happy Planet Hunting!