Nan at Night by Nancy Hoyt
-Thursday the 12th: Saturn is in exceptional view early tomorrow. The planet is in the east at first light, almost directly above the Moon. Saturn looks like a bright golden star, shining steadily in the growing light of dawn.
-Friday the 13th: Beware! As the moon clears the eastern horizon a couple of hours before sunrise tomorrow, Spica will stand just to its upper left. As dawn begins to color the sky, the planet Venus will rise below the moon. Venus is currently the brilliant “morning star.”
-Saturday the 14th: Although Pisces, the fish, is one of the faintest constellations of the zodiac; it has one of the reddest stars in the sky. Known as TX Piscium, it is bright enough to see with just the unaided eye, particularly in the dark mountain sky.
-Sunday the 15th: The Leonid Meteor Shower peaks this week. It occurs when Earth crosses the orbital path of Comet Tempel-Tuttle, which is strewn with bits of dust from the comet. When the particles hit Earth’s atmosphere they vaporize, forming bright streaks of light.
-Monday the 16th: The Leonid Meteor Shower should be at its best before dawn tomorrow. The Moon is out of the way, so it won’t spoil the show. Although the shower is named for Leo, the meteors can streak across any part of the sky, so you don’t have to look at the lion to see them.
-Tuesday the 17th: November evenings are good times to watch the Milky Way, which is the combined glow of millions of stars in the disk of our Milky Way galaxy. It arches from east to west, with a dip toward the northern horizon. You need a dark sky, to see the Milky Way.
-Wednesday the 18th: Forty years ago on November 18, 1969, Astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean made a pinpoint landing on the Moon. They touched down on the edge of a crater containing Surveyor 3, an unmanned lander that arrived on the Moon in 1967. Also, twenty years ago on November 18, 1989, NASA launched a craft designed to probe the afterglow of the Big Bang. The Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) discovered tiny temperature variations in the afterglow, showing early structure that led to the formation of the first galaxies. In 2006, mission scientists George Smoot and John Mather won the Nobel Prize for Physics for COBE’s work.
This week just may be one filled with spectacular “fireworks” high in the eastern sky. The Leonid Meteor Shower peaks late Monday night and into early Tuesday morning. There is some speculation that we may be treated to a show of as many as 100 to 150 Leonids streaking across the sky per hour! This particular shower is the result of left over dust and debris from the comet Tempel-Tuttle, “a small celestial body that orbits the Sun at 33-year intervals.” The comet passed our neighborhood last in 1998 and from that year through 2002, the meteors fell at a rate of more than a thousand per hour – astronomers call these events “meteor storms.” It seemed that the Leonids had spent their glory until the next pass by decades from now but there seems to be some new data, which may alter this prediction. “Apparently, a rather narrow but dense ribbon of dust was shed by comet Temple-Tuttle when it passed the Sun in 1932. When the Earth interacted with that dusty trail back in 1969, it produced a brief bevy of some 200 to 300 meteors in less than an hour. In 2009, Earth will be nearly twice as far away from the comet as opposed to 1969, but expectations are extremely high as we interact with that decades-old ribbon of debris once again.” To watch this dramatic event, first bundle up nice and warm, as our nights have turned quite chilly of late. Then find a spot to relax looking toward the eastern sky. Leo the Lion should be high in the east as the night wanes on. These comets seem to originate from this constellation, hence the name “Leonids.” Let your eyes wander across the sky, and you should experience a thrilling evening. There is nothing quite like a “shooting star” to add a little excitement to your life! Make a wish or two and enjoy!
