November is kicking off with a stacked week of celestial events.
Everybody , give a round of clapping to the first week of November who , to assemble the high-pitched expectations set by the last week of October ( scary time of year , Halloween , and all that ) , decided to sanctify us with apacked agenda of cosmic case .
This week you have not one , but two very cool ethereal occurrent to be on the scout for . For starting motor , Jupiter , the heavy major planet in the solar system , will be at its closest point to Earth on November 1 and November 2 , which intend it ’ll be undimmed and visible in the sky , according toEarthSky . After that , it will go into its yearly enemy — meaning the Earth will be locate exactly in between Jupiter and the sun — on November 2 and 3 .
But how does that sham our viewer experience , so to speak ? Well , when Jupiter is at its close power point to Earth , which stargazer call " perigee , " it only logically follows that the planet will seem bigger and brighter .
Kevin Key/Slworking/Moment/Getty Images
You wo n’t have a hard time find it in the sky , so no want to stress . In the days leading up to the planet being at perigee with Earth , Jupiter already come out as a very bright target in the sky , and it even appear brighter than all the stars . But on 5 postmortem Eastern Time on November 1 , it will reach its closest tip to Earth , and it will come out even brighter than before with a magnitude of -2.9 , making it the fourthly brightest object in the sky after the sun , the moon , and Venus .
That means that your dependable bet is setting out in the evening or night between November 1 and 2 to see self-aggrandising Jupiter hang out . you may even use binoculars and through those , harmonize to EarthSky , you might even catch a glance of its four moons .
If planets are not your thing or you miss out on this issue , there is something else in store for you . The Tauridmeteorshower is also slat to top out this hebdomad . Or well , the South Taurids are . The Taurids technically divide into two tranches that are reasonably close-fitting by and passably overlap . The South Taurid meteor cascade happens from around September 10 to November 20 , while its northern counterpart is combat-ready from around October 20 to December 10 , allot toEarth Sky .
This week , the South Taurids are putting up a show . Their predicted peak is November 6 at 8:47 pm EST , and some of them might even be fireball . Your good clip to judge and see them is around midnight , but since their peak is n’t very definite , you could still try out and catch them around November 13 when the moon will be in its new synodic month phase and wo n’t therefore interfere with its brightness , EarthSky suggests .
In term of idealistic conditions , you eff the recitation . Get somewhere with modest light pollution ( here ’s a ready to hand single-valued function for that ) or check where the nearest dark site is ( there ’s a single-valued function for this , too ) . As NASA recommends , lay savourless on your back and get comfortable with some blankets and allow your eyes at least 30 minutes to adapt to the darkness . After that , you should be able to see about five meteors per hour ( 10 if the South and North Taurids overlap ) . Happy stargazing !
Ready to go stargazing?
Here are allthe best stargazing eventsthat you could get out and see this month or you could persist in andstream the northern lightsfrom home . If you ’re just getting begin , agree out ourguide to astronomy for beginnersoreasy stargazing road trips from bounteous US cities .