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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22 ■ This evening may be your last chance to spot Mercury in twilight this year. Try for it 21° (about two fists at arm’s length) lower right of brilliant Venus about 30 to 45 minutes after sunset, as shown below. Every day now Mercury fades and sinks. Its next evening apparition won’t […]
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15 ■ Mercury is still at the best and brightest it will be during its current low, mediocre evening apparition. As twilight fades, see if you can catch Mercury nearly two fists to the lower right of Venus in the southwest, as shown below. Mercury shines at magnitude –0.2 compared to Venus’s mag […]
November fireballs? Each year from roughly late October through mid-November, a dazzling Taurid meteor just might take you by surprise in the night. If you get very lucky. Normally the broad, weak, South and North Taurid meteor showers sputter along with maybe 5 or 10 ordinary little meteors visible per hour even under ideal moonless […]
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1 ■ November fireballs? Every year from roughly late October through mid-November, a truly dazzling Taurid meteor just might take you by surprise in the night. If you get very lucky. A Taurid fireball caught streaking over Skibotn, Norway, in 2020. Medisilvanus / Wikimedia Commons Normally the broad, weak, South and North Taurid […]
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (pronounced “tzeh-chin-SHAHN”) continues to shrink and fade as it recedes into the distance in the western sky right after nightfall. It’s still a fine target for binoculars and telescopes, moderately high in Ophiuchus in moonless darkness. See Bob King’s latest update, Grab Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS by the Tail, including a finder chart running through […]
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (pronounced “tzeh-chin-SHAHN”) is still in good evening view high in the west for Northern Hemisphere skywatchers, though it’s both fading and shrinking as it flies away from the Sun and Earth. Moonlight has been compromising the view; full Moon (a supermoon no less!) came on the evenings of October 16th and 17th. But […]
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (pronounced “Choo-chin-SHAHN”) is entering its week of glory for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. It has swung around the Sun and begins emerging into evening view around Friday the 11th, very low due west in twilight. Binoculars will help you pick it up through the fading afterglow of day. Each day […]