November 2024

Send us Fan Mail Social Media Links Full text available at the Cosmos Safari Blog What is gracing the November 2024 skies? A couple occultations, a meteor shower, and a veritable parade of planets, especially on Thanksgiving. We’ll start by talking about November’s big events, then highlight the naked eye planets, and finish up with the lunar phases, so you can plan ahead better than me. BIG EVENTS 5th - Daylight Saving Time Ends 10th - Occultation of Saturn? 17th - 18th – Leonid Meteor Shower 27th - Occultation of Spica 28th - Thanksgiving (US) - With sunset at 4:40pm, Thanksgiving provides us a cornucopia of opportunities to show our families how awesome astronomy is. Naked-eye PLANETS Sunset - Venus, Saturn Middle of the night - Saturn, Jupiter, Mars Morning - Jupiter, Mars LUNAR CYCLE New Moon – 1st (darkest skies) Evening Crescents (look West after Sunset) First Quarter Moon – 9th (Visible until midnight) Evening Gibbous (Mostly lit, after Sunset) Full Moon – 15th (Visible all night) Waning Gibbous (Mostly lit, rises later at night) Last Quarter Moon – 22nd (Visible midnight into the morning) Morning Crescents (look East in the AM) LUNAR CLOSE ENCOUNTERS The Moon will be traveling across the sky as normal, passing by some planets at particular times. 4th - VERY thin Waxing Crescent, below Venus 4°, SW sky after sunset, less than 15° above the horizon 10th - Gibbous Moon about 2° to the right of Saturn, in the SE after sunset, setting in the West before 1:30am. Closest (about 1/2°) around 10pm. 16th - 17th - Find the just-past-full Moon just about 10° up and to the right of Jupiter on the 16th, and just about 10° to the left of Jupiter on the 17th, moving West throughout the night, looking awesome in the West around sunrise. 24th - Rising in the East after 9:30pm, the Gibbous Moon will be about 4˚ to the left of Mars, moving West until it’s almost straight above us by sunrise. And that’s the sky for this month. If you find this advance notice of the night sky helpful, please support this work by finding Last Minute Astronomer on Patreon, and don’t forget to follow Last Minute Astronomer on Facebook and Instagram. Till next month, I’m the Last Minute Astronomer wishing you fruitful plans and clear skies. Music was produced by Deep Sky Dude and used with permission. And that’s the sky for this month! If you find this advance notice of the night sky helpful, please support this work by finding Last Minute Astronomer on Patreon, and don’t forget to follow Last Minute Astronomer on Facebook and Instagram. Till next month, I’m the Last Minute Astronomer wishing you fruitful plans and clear skies. Music was produced by Deep Sky Dude and used with permission.