Podcaster: Shane and Chris
Title: Objects to Observe in the November 2020 Night Sky
Organization: Actual Astronomy
Link : https://actualastronomy.podbean.com/
Description: The Actual Astronomy Podcast presents Objects to Observe in the November Night Sky. In this episode we focus on sky events to help newcomers learn the night sky as we discuss Meteor Showers, Comets to locate and how to use the Moon to find Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Mars, Venus and Mercury!
Bio: Shane and Chris are amateur astronomers who enjoy teaching astronomy classes and performing outreach where they help the eyes of the public to telescope eyepieces.
Today’s sponsor: Big thanks to our Patreon supporters this month: David Bowes, Dustin A Ruoff, Brett Duane, Kim Hay, Nik Whitehead, Timo Sievänen, Michael Freedman, Paul Fischer, Rani Bush, Karl Bewley, Joko Danar, Steven Emert, Frank Tippin, Steven Jansen, Barbara Geier, Don Swartwout, James K. Wood, Katrina Ince, Michael Lewinger, Phyllis Simon Foster, Nicolo DePierro, Tim Smith, Frank Frankovic, Steve Nerlich
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Transcript:
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Chris Beckett: And welcome to Episode 60 of the actual astronomy podcast. This is the objects to observe in the November night sky episode. I’m Chris and joining me as usual machine. Say good morning chain.
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Shane Ludtke: Today, sir. How are you
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Chris Beckett: I’m doing very well. So we’re amateur astronomers. That means we do astronomy, just for the fun of it. We’re not professionals in any way whatsoever. Though I i do volunteer to teach
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Chris Beckett: It reach courses semester link courses at the local university but that’s something I just volunteer to do with my own enjoyment and this podcast, though, is the way that we share the fun of astronomy.
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Chris Beckett: With other people out there on the internet, it’s really been amazing to to see the uptake as we slowly approach 10,000 downloads.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, it’s been a lot of fun.
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Shane Ludtke: I’m enjoying lately I’ve been enjoying a lot of the questions that we’ve been receiving. So we had that mailbag episode. A few weeks ago and
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Shane Ludtke: You know, probably have another one in. Probably a week or two. I’m guessing. We’ll see how the, the questions go but it’s been enjoyable to that part of it.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, it’s nice to see and we’re trying to get those together because there’s, there’s a few different people that have kind of asked the same question in a couple different ways.
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Chris Beckett: And so I know you’ve been really good. I think responding people Shane, but you know, I think we’re going to try to get those together in in a slightly different format. We’ve got some ideas there that were that were playing with. And, you know, going to see where we go with that.
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Chris Beckett: So it’s pretty much dark though, where we live by. I have 6pm here. But then I noticed after with this yesterday it was like 530. It was dark, dark by 530 p
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Shane Ludtke: Well yeah the the sunsets right now at about 550, I think, you know, so we have Twilight for 30 minutes. And yeah, it’s
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Shane Ludtke: It’s it, you know, I’ve lived here all my life and it’s still always surprises me on both shoulder season spring and fall, how quickly we gain you know evening light in the spring and how quickly disappears in the fall, just all of a sudden it’s gone.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, the one thing that surprises me the most is how dark it can actually get here, even before the sun sense because it’s it’s get so low on the horizon there before setting like I was kind of surprising. You said it was like, just before six or or whatever it is.
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Chris Beckett: Because you had, you know, it was very cloudy yesterday and even before the sunset, like the lights for my god I’m a streets.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah.
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Chris Beckett: I thought it said earlier than that.
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Chris Beckett: But by six, you know, really by by, you know, the start of November, 6pm it’s it’s going to be dark, you know,
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Shane Ludtke: And in this year, we have the added surprise of probably about an inch of snow on the ground this morning.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, yeah, we’ve been getting snow, the past week, which is always very surprising to me because
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Chris Beckett: I come from a place. It’s a little bit warmer, not, not, you know, a warm warm place. But growing up on the east coast where I’m from.
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Chris Beckett: It would be maybe once every 10 years you would get a snowfall like this in October and then yeah, typically Christmas. It is like it’s according to us. It’s actually I think more in favor of not having snow on the ground at Christmas.
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Chris Beckett: So where I grew up. Specifically, it was 5050 and there’s some years were run from that you don’t get snow. So you might get like five centimeters. You can also get 500 centimeters. So it’s highly, highly variable.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, normally we don’t have snow here until you know probably November, the earliest
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Shane Ludtke: But this is not completely out of the realm of possibilities. I remember as a kid for Halloween having to trudge through snow banks, you know, to collect candy.
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Shane Ludtke: But it looks like the snow is also going to disappear. I think we’re returning to some positive temperatures this coming week so that’ll be okay.
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Shane Ludtke: The unfortunate part about all of this recent snow is it’s meant a lot of cloudy nights and I you know I know we’re not really getting too much into our observing but i really i was sculpt I didn’t get out again.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, there was a couple mornings that were that were clear I get up, I get up one morning and then I was
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Chris Beckett: I was having some asthma problems. So I didn’t go out. I thought it was very cold. It was minus 23 WITH THE WINDCHILL I debate, I
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Chris Beckett: Just shouldn’t go out like I’m I’m having some some breathing challenges. So I thought, you know, I’m just gonna hang in tonight and then
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Chris Beckett: The next night I didn’t get up, I decided I wouldn’t set the alarm and get a, get a really good night’s sleep for change.
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Chris Beckett: And I get up and it was totally cloudy, just like today, and one of my students wrote me and said,
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Chris Beckett: That had been clear and they get up and did some photos and send them to me. So I have been super jealous actually should reply to them, they’re probably wondering why didn’t reply, I was like so.
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Chris Beckett: You know, kind of bummed that I that I didn’t actually get up and go but but anyway, as was resolved now and and by the time you know later on in the week, right, I think we’re going to get some some clear skies, but these nights. You know, it’s really amazing here because
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Chris Beckett: Here in Saskatchewan where it does really get proportionally darker and darker every night at about the same rate that the sky is moving.
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Chris Beckett: from east to west. So we’ve essentially had an ad, you know, dark fall or at the point where it actually gets gets dark enough to really see the stars, we’ve had about the same view of the nighttime sky. It’s really like someone just hits a big pause button, man.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, that’s a great point. Yeah, yeah.
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Shane Ludtke: I’ve never really considered that. But yeah, you’re right. It’s like somebody did press the pause button and we get to just continue to observe the same sky.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, I mean where I’m from, you know, you get a little bit of that, you know, being seven or eight degrees further south.
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Chris Beckett: But I really notice it here. You know, like it just be get the Summer Triangle and Hercules there. We’ve had Jupiter and Saturn.
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Chris Beckett: Hanging on on the southern horizon at dusk, but you have you go out. There’s not really much difference night tonight. In fact, that you I don’t think anybody would notice it.
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Chris Beckett: The variance in sky quality would would trump any movement in in the stars from night tonight. In fact, you know, I was looking for November 1 there.
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Chris Beckett: And I see that Sagittarius is just starting to touch the horizon. Now, and probably if you went back to October 1 who wouldn’t you know at darkness.
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Chris Beckett: Darkness here being being
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Chris Beckett: Just after six o’clock in November 1 darkness last month was at like 730 or something, it wouldn’t have been it wouldn’t be an appreciable difference if you were if you’re actually looking at the sky, not really that different. So
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, that’s very interesting glad you brought that up.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah. So speaking of differences.
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Chris Beckett: So November 1 is also a big date. It’s called daylight savings time and and now people are going to think that I’m being a jerk. But do you know what this is. Shane.
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Shane Ludtke: Well, isn’t it, aligning the solar noon with like local noon time
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, that’s more or less what it is. And for a lot of people out there, they’re going to think that I’m kind of being a jerk and maybe Shane’s
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Chris Beckett: Just sort of playing, but they do not do the business of daylight savings time here in Saskatchewan. So as you said earlier in the show he he grew up here.
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Chris Beckett: And they don’t do it here and then they do it in the most of the rest of the world. And what happens is in the spring.
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Chris Beckett: They move the clocks ahead in the rest of the world and in the autumn, you bring them back an hour. Now, here’s some really weird part about this is that where I’m from. And the other places. I live. They do this and they say it’s for the farmers.
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Shane Ludtke: Which we have a lot of
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Chris Beckett: Schedule. It has the highest and I believe this is true.
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Chris Beckett: I think it has the highest per capita of farmers like anywhere on the earth or something like that because there’s there’s not a lot of people in Saskatchewan and a lot of them are farmers, so it’s pretty easy to to hit that proportional representation
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Chris Beckett: But let me tell you.
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Chris Beckett: I really hate daylight savings time
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Chris Beckett: You know, growing up with it and like it was just like, you know, it’s getting darker that the weather is getting cooler.
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Chris Beckett: You know, no matter where you’re on the northern hemisphere and and now you’re going to take an hour away from me.
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Chris Beckett: Right, you’re going to disrupt my sleep on top of that, all you thought it was dark last week and kind of crappy because it’s sort of wet and windy and whatever. Where do you see what’s happening tomorrow.
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Shane Ludtke: And I hate spending the time on my microwave
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Shane Ludtke: And my other and you know a few other clocks around the house. So I appreciate quite a bit that we don’t have to adjust our clocks, we sit here.
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Chris Beckett: And like it’s and it’s strange that the devices don’t do this, like, you think it’s it’s 2020 sure you know in the year 2000 when you know maybe some people were just getting their first
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Chris Beckett: Devices that had digital clock satin and maybe some very basic computer tips. But now this should be. It should all be automatic, but it’s not
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Shane Ludtke: Well, maybe, you know, this is a little bit of trivia potentially to for some of our listeners, like when you’re installing say windows or whatever electronic thing where you have to pick a time zone.
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Shane Ludtke: If you look for minus like six. There’s always a sketch one option. And that’s because we don’t do daylight savings.
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Shane Ludtke: So we end up with our own special treatment and a lot of these applications.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, or not.
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Shane Ludtke: Like, I think it’s sort of my
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Chris Beckett: planetarium software. It’s not there, and it gets confused.
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Shane Ludtke: But well,
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Chris Beckett: I’m willing to live with that. Just not not to have to deal with it. I just really don’t like dealing with it. Um, but then because sort of the world changes around us. And I like to think that the world kind of revolves around Scotch went away. Maybe, but
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Chris Beckett: But then I always have to kind of do the calculation. When I’m calling all my family and friends elsewhere. So
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Chris Beckett: It works out better for me because I have more friends to the east and the west. So once we get into autumn. Anyway, it tends to work a little bit better at this time of year, so
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Chris Beckett: Let’s see now. We’ve dispense the whole daylight savings time
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Chris Beckett: Business and oh, and you may not know this, either shame but they actually went through a period of time for a while there. I can’t remember when it started when it ended, but they were actually moving it by a week or so many days every, every year or every few years.
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Chris Beckett: So that just made it extra confusing for the daylight savings.
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Chris Beckett: Time. So anyway, I’m glad I’m glad we don’t want to deal with that. Sometimes they talk about it here and I’m just like, don’t do it.
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Shane Ludtke: Don’t do
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Chris Beckett: It works really
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Chris Beckett: Really well here not to have to bother with it.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, agreed.
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Chris Beckett: Alright so Wednesday, November 4 so this is coming up, you know, now we’re doing this. Towards the end of October. So is going to be sort of a week or so from now but November 4 the moon and and 35
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Chris Beckett: Are going to be together in the night sky. So if you find the moon that night, you’re going to see just to the upper right, or just to the north west, you’re going to see a little cluster right now and 35 is a is a fear of the break cluster it this is up in Gemini.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah.
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Chris Beckett: And you know, I don’t know. I think that will be visible, though it. I think it’s front. It’s a few degrees away so people should be able to see it binoculars.
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Shane Ludtke: That’s a beautiful cluster. I like looking at that one and that look like, like you said, it’s bright like that really jumps out.
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Chris Beckett: at you. Yeah.
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Shane Ludtke: When you’re looking in that region.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah yeah it looks pretty good. One thing I noticed. So, so the moon and the moon and 35 is an open star cluster up in up in Gemini and we talked about open star clusters and what they’re in past episodes.
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Chris Beckett: But I didn’t notice and we we sort of based these loosely on the observers Handbook, by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, which I’m a, I’m a contributing author
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Chris Beckett: But I noticed that they headed as the fifth. And I think what happened there is that they were using the Universal Time.
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Shane Ludtke: And, you know,
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Chris Beckett: And I noticed this, the odd time is sometimes. Speaking of daylight savings time there is a bit of confusion over
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Chris Beckett: When it will be in the in the evening sky here. So, you know, I’ll bring that up with the editor and say, you know, gotta kind of watch that a little bit more. So I’ve been noticing it a little bit more and more since
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Chris Beckett: We’ve had new editor, the past couple of years, because if you actually run it on universal time it will say it’s on that. I think that’s just confusing for most people that are going to flip it open and say, well, what’s up tonight.
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Chris Beckett: Where’s my calculator to figure out if it’s, you know, universal timer or whatever. I kind of wish that they they wouldn’t rely as much
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Chris Beckett: As much on that and I think it’s just because it passes that closest point just after midnight on the, you know, on the fifth according universal time anyway. The following night on November 5 is Thursday, November 5 there is the so torrid meteor shower. Do you ever look at the south towards
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Shane Ludtke: I’m not intentionally no
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Shane Ludtke: Have you, have you made a point to check them out.
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Chris Beckett: I never have. And this year, I don’t think it’s going to be that great, because that means looking pretty full. Right. So there are a couple of meteor showers. These happen every year.
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Chris Beckett: But I think this year. Yeah, it’s, it’s not really going to be worth going to take a look. But if people are if people are out and happy to be out on the on the fifth of November.
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Chris Beckett: And you want to look up and just to the right of the Pleiades star cluster and 45 which is a really prominent star cluster and
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Chris Beckett: In just to the right or just to the west of the Pleiades is the radiant and that’s the point from which the meteors are supposed to emanate but I don’t or radiate i don’t think that
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Chris Beckett: That this shower is is going to be that good because the moon is is simply twofold so
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Shane Ludtke: Well, and it’s a it’s a low. It’s a low count meteor shower at its peak, it’s only about five meteors per hour.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, so you know it’s a meteor shower. That’s kind of almost easy to miss because five isn’t a lot. The interesting thing though about the towards is it’s an exceptionally long lasting meteor shower.
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Shane Ludtke: I think it peaks, like you said on the fifth of November, but this actually started like towards the end of September and goes until the end of November. It’s just like a really, really wide dust cloud in space that we’re traveling through
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, it’s kind of interesting. But yeah, not a lot of actual meteors to see not like the Perseids, for example, can like when it’s been at like, you know, find display it can be over 200 meteors per hour. So five per hour is not a lot
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Yeah.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah.
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Chris Beckett: Let’s see. So, November 8. This is Sunday november 8 we had the last quarter moon.
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Chris Beckett: And this means that the moon rises at about midnight, and it’s going to be, it’s going to appear as a half moon. So it’s sort of one of those things where
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Chris Beckett: Sometimes people can get a little bit confused because it appears as if the moon is half illuminated we say that’s that’s a quarter moon. I mean, the moon is always half illuminated right like no matter where it just depends on our
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Chris Beckett: Our perspective of it. So the last lunar phase of the last quarter phase repeats every
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Chris Beckett: Like as we see it from Earth every 29 and a half days. We’re going to talk more about the moon.
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Chris Beckett: During the next during the next episode, so I won’t say much, much more about that, but we have mercury coming along and I’m pretty excited for this.
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Chris Beckett: Already getting set up for this one mercury emerges into the morning Twilight really this month and then and then actually on November 1 it starts to peek above the horizon.
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Chris Beckett: But it’s at its best honor both the the November 10 date and really morning Rogers will be greeted to to recreate its greatest Western elongation.
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Shane Ludtke: Right, so
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Shane Ludtke: In the mortal circus.
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Chris Beckett: No. No, go ahead.
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Shane Ludtke: Um, so are you going to use a telescope for mercury.
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Chris Beckett: Yes, so you don’t necessarily need to you can see mercury with the with the unaided I
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Chris Beckett: But when it’s at its at one of the greatest elongation points in this is a morning one. So it’s Western
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Chris Beckett: And even though it’s in the eastern sky, you’re going to be getting up pretty early between five and six will be the best time for for getting it in your in your sights. But yeah, for sure. I’m going to probably use my 16 millimeter
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Chris Beckett: For a couple reasons. Mercury is pretty bright and it’s it’s small, but it’s still a desk.
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Chris Beckett: You can see the phases. Sometimes you can see some people have reported seeing some surface detail, but not until a tie up overhead, but with a small telescope
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Chris Beckett: The atmosphere and it’s very loads to the atmosphere won’t, won’t impact of view as much for a really, really small telescopes, some kind of
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Chris Beckett: Kind of hoping to get the little one, the little 60 millimeter out again and and do an observation of that but but it only gets about 19 degrees away from from the sun at its
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Shane Ludtke: At its most yeah yeah
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Chris Beckett: How about you, are you going to get out and take a peek at that
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Shane Ludtke: Probably not know mercury doesn’t excite me very much and cold winter mornings excite me less so.
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Yeah.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, it’s, it’s, I like observing mercury. I think I don’t know whether this is true or not. I think it was said that
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Chris Beckett: Copernicus never was able to observe
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Chris Beckett: Mercury, either it was, it was just something he wasn’t after was
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Chris Beckett: Not well placed or or or what, exactly, but I think it’s I think it’s a neat planet to observe. It’s really orange, mostly because it’s just, just so so low on the horizon. Eventually what I want to do is in now that have that tracking Matt is to be able to to get it and track it.
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Chris Beckett: As it’s going across the sky, that’s sort of one of my one of my hopes, I need to get I need to get things set up quite a bit.
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Chris Beckett: It’s a little more complicated than I thought it was going to be to do that, actually. But, but that’s that’s one of my hopes to be able to observe it, like maybe during the middle of the day, kind of thing.
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Shane Ludtke: Oh yeah, yeah, that would be neat.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, so anyway now November 12 if you missed the south towards back on the fifth
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Chris Beckett: You can take a look for the north toward meteor shower.
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Chris Beckett: Which is just a little bit closer to the Pleiades, I mean, it’s pretty much the radian is is almost at the Pleiades
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Chris Beckett: And that might be worth getting up for the moon on that morning is just going to be about three degrees away from Venus.
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Chris Beckett: And so you get up at
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Chris Beckett: at 5am or 530 and take a look at the Moon and Venus and then you can you can watch for some some meteors as well so that that could be something worth worth getting up for at least on the 12th, you’d have a few few different things to look out there.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, yeah, that would be kind of neat.
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Shane Ludtke: You probably need to get out of the city to for the meteors. You don’t need the darkest skies, but you know the the the urban light pollution would probably wash out some or maybe all of those meteors. So if you can get outside of
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Shane Ludtke: The light pollution and get into some darker skies, you’ll definitely increase your likelihood of seeing some of those meteors
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, I mean I guess like I live on the edge of the city. And even though there’s tons and tons of light around. It’s all just just super local
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Chris Beckett: So morning when we’re out for walks like in my neighborhood, he can still get pretty dark like winter sort of between the lights and we frequently see meteors
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Chris Beckett: You know, often looking up and it was trying to me. So that’s the way it goes. Even for my street women observing, like if a streetlight is it or something.
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Chris Beckett: Nearby I’ll definitely get some some meteors. So some of these can be can be fairly bright. But yeah, for the most part, for most people in a city or a big town, you’re going to want to want to go.
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Chris Beckett: Get it somewhere, dark, we get some some warmer nights could be could be worth going to the fields, maybe, yeah. For sure shot and then on November 13. This is the next morning.
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Chris Beckett: Really, where is just can take a peek at mercury and the moon. In fact, you’re going to have Venus, the moon, and mercury all visible at about
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Chris Beckett: Six o’clock in the morning or just before it really starts getting getting too bright. It’s going to be a line of about 15 degrees so fist at arm’s length is
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Chris Beckett: 10 degrees on the night sky. And so this is going to be a nice sort of long stretch of Venus, the moon, and mercury. I think that’ll look really pretty could be good for for a photo somebody
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
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Shane Ludtke: For sure. Yeah. That would make a note like an excellent photo.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, so let’s see on the 15th. So halfway through the month. It’s really nice. We get the new moon rate in the middle of November, almost right at the halfway point.
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Shane Ludtke: Right on.
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Chris Beckett: So that’s going to be the that’s going to be the target for getting out to some dark skies. I’m hoping like you’re saying it’s going to wear off a little because
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Chris Beckett: You know, if it isn’t the minus 20 years and I know like we’re saying minus 20 is here. We’ve been into the minus 20 WITH THE WINDCHILL
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Chris Beckett: We’ve only been down to minus 16 or 17 which which is cold enough, but I would still go out observing at that temperature but
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Chris Beckett: Typically tour. So with it’s warmer where we go by a few degrees so that if it’s minus 16 here well down there may only be minus 11 and that’s not too bad.
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Chris Beckett: But recently it’s been colder to her. So with for some strange reason, and some of those areas that we’re going to have even been down to minus 20 minus 23 WITH THE WINDCHILL
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Chris Beckett: And so that is probably getting a little bit cool for for driving that fire to your, your only just getting into the light pollution, you’re not going to get any warmer by going down there these days. So
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Chris Beckett: Let’s see. Mars is also stationary. On November 15 and this is really exciting because it gets into the retrograde business.
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Chris Beckett: Back into pro great under the progress track. So then we’re out of the bad luck or whatever it is that the astrologers say that
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Chris Beckett: With with retrograde, I don’t know. I don’t know what they say. But
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, for those wondering, they can watch my interview on the local access cable.
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Chris Beckett: What retrograde actually is versus what astrologers think it is, which I have no idea what the astrologers think it is. So we don’t don’t do any of that.
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Chris Beckett: Anyway, it’s coming along nicely and on Tuesday, November 17. That’s a big day or big night because we have the Leonid meteor shower.
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Chris Beckett: But this year low rates.
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Shane Ludtke: Five. Yeah.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah yeah that’s pretty slow. Unfortunately,
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, even at 15 you know that’s not a lot
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, they can be bright, though they can produce the leads can produce fireballs so if people want to see it. They are going to have to get up and just before dawn.
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Chris Beckett: Like around at 536 O’clock timeframe, you’re going to have to get somewhere dark or maybe you live somewhere dark
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Chris Beckett: And then you’re going to want to look towards the east and find the constellation Leo, which is noted by the bright star Regulus
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Chris Beckett: And and it’s just it just sort of in that general area of the sky, but the leads are so bright that that even from any kind of recently dark area, they should put on a pretty good show. Have you seen the lean it’s have you gotten
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah yeah those I have seen
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Shane Ludtke: I can’t remember when that was. But yeah, the, what does stand out to me is the brightness.
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Shane Ludtke: And and you’ll see them all night. It just they peek, you know, early in the morning. So if you get out on the 17th well even like a week on either end, you’re probably going to see some Leonids if you’re looking that way.
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Yeah.
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Chris Beckett: Yep.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, they can they can produce some brave ones. I remember we had the the big lenient meteor shower about 20 odd years ago maybe 21 years ago and then
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Chris Beckett: On that night I saw quite a few. And I remember I went out to one of my favorite spots which is along the highway and
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Chris Beckett: And typically, I go out there and there’s like, I don’t know that I ever saw anybody else out there looking at the night sky.
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Chris Beckett: And then when I went out there, there was like 300 people was really it was really weird. It was really weird.
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Chris Beckett: Sort of to have that it was sort of well publicized and and whatever. And this is like
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Chris Beckett: There’s some spots in in Nova Scotia room from that are really amazing places to watch the sunrise and places that people are tourists and that will go anyway and
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Chris Beckett: They’re sort of well known for that. And then, yeah, you had to like park like a mile down the road over to the spot. It was it was strange. So anyway,
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Shane Ludtke: And Leo is one of my favorite constellations. Like, I think it’s a well first of all it’s huge. There’s a lot of interesting objects in Leo to observe through a telescope
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Shane Ludtke: But it’s one of the constellations that when I look at it I can easily envision the lie and it just, it looks like something you know to me were some constellations. I have a hard time visualizing
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Shane Ludtke: What it’s supposed to represent in the sky. So yeah, I love Leo.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah. LEO. LEO is is next. As far as picking up from the background stars and
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, we should we should talk about that. It’s a springtime constellation know why we’re talking about now is it’s in the morning sky, and this is when the
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Chris Beckett: Springtime constellations start, start poking above the horizon as Dawn is approaching and yeah and then it gradually over the winter. They’ll be getting closer and closer to midnight, and then, by the time we rolled into April, they’ll be nice and high. After dinner.
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Chris Beckett: So November 18 and 19th, just after sunset. Now these are going to be getting pretty low on the horizon. But they are visible from here I I made up some some images that I’m sharing with machine and
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Chris Beckett: My circle that I’ve drawn is 10 degrees because that’s the fist at arm’s length and I use this in all of my charts for my class so that when I’m chatting with my students, they, they know what what the reference point is
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Chris Beckett: But running about 10 degrees we have on the 18th. The moon Jupiter and Saturn are coming up from the southwest. And then on the following night we have Jupiter, Saturn, and then the moon.
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Chris Beckett: So they’re, they’re not going to be close enough to get in a traditional binocular but they will be close. They will sort of it will appear.
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Chris Beckett: You know, very photographic and you know this past week. I don’t know if you get out, it was, it was actually on Thursday. I know that because that’s when I teach one class and we had
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Chris Beckett: Jupiter, Saturn, and the moon and they were more of a triangle. This times this is sort of a repeat
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Chris Beckett: Performance and I went out and looked and then it was really neat because I went out and looked and then some of the students
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Chris Beckett: I guess they they skipped off from my classroom I took photos, instead of attending the class or didn’t attend all of the class and actually went out and looked at the sky, because it was clear. And that was one of the few nights. It was clear.
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Chris Beckett: Anyhow, and they sent me some photographs which which I really, really love seeing. So it was kind of neat to to go out and take a quick look and then come in and then as as my guest presenter was was finishing up. We had a look at some of those photos, really cool.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah. Yeah, they were well positioned
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Chris Beckett: And yeah. Did you sleep at night.
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Shane Ludtke: I did, yeah. Yeah, I did. And the what you’ve got, or what we’ll see on the 18th and 19th of November will be beautiful to so
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, another good photographic opportunity.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, just, it will appear a little, just a little bit different. So Saturday, November 21 we have the first quarter moon.
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Chris Beckett: And, you know, so that’s just when the moon is is waxing. So it’s coming on to two words full and then on the 25th, the Moon and Mars are going to be really close.
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Chris Beckett: Now when I looked this up in the handbook. It said there were going to be three degrees.
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Chris Beckett: But I think, again, they’re going by Universal Time. But at at their closest here, they look more like they’re going to be four or five degrees from North America. So maybe not quite a bit. Not quite three degrees.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, so, you know, a telescope with a wide field IPs that has probably a shorter focal length you you could fit both of those in potentially in one field of view.
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Yeah.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, they should look they should look pretty good. So if people are out there and haven’t been able to TO SEE MARS yet during the opposition or it can be pretty neat. Just to idea.
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Chris Beckett: Maybe fine just just going to take a peek.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, absolutely.
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Chris Beckett: So then, on the 25th as well. So we have the Moon and Mars.
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Chris Beckett: But I think it must be the 27th. Sorry I skipped ahead. It’s going to be on November 27 we’re going to have Uranus and the moon pretty close in the nighttime sky.
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Shane Ludtke: Oh, okay, well you know that’s if if you’ve never seen Uranus before. That’s an optimum time to try to find it because you have an easy marker being the moon.
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Shane Ludtke: So you go up a little bit kind of up into the right and there’s Uranus.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, that’s pretty neat. Now I’m just going to share my screen with you for for this product for some reason I thought I was sharing it already. But we have some comments coming up thing.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, yeah, I’ve got a list in front of me.
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Chris Beckett: Okay, well I’m I’m sharing my screen, but maybe. Yeah, call it a comment. And I’ll just bring it up here on on the screen. We’re using I use. I don’t know if you use this website. This is my favorite.
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Chris Beckett: Comment website, not only for the beautiful plaid background and and violet and and sort of pastel green tones, but also because it has the best information I think on
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Chris Beckett: On comments that are visible. It’s called you shit is or your sheet is I’m probably saying that totally wrong.
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Chris Beckett: He’s I believe it, a Japanese astronomer and he he creates this every month so used to be that you could go to the Harvard
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Chris Beckett: Center for astronomical telegrams and get all this type of information, but that that went away. A number of years ago, and then Yoshida has has come up with, with his own version of this.
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Chris Beckett: Which I like quite a bit better because he he provides enough star chart information and his website is h e r i t h.net slash comment.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, that’s a great resource.
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Chris Beckett: So what’s your first. Do you use the site.
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Shane Ludtke: Oh no, I’ve never seen that one actually
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Chris Beckett: Okay, no.
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Chris Beckett: All right, well, you can comment, and I’ll call it up on his, on his web page. And you’ll see how great it is.
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Shane Ludtke: Okay, well let’s start off with the comment of the year comment Neil wise.
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Chris Beckett: All right.
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I’m
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Shane Ludtke: The one was the last time you saw any always Chris probably the third week of July. He’s my guess.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, maybe around the beginning of August, something like that. Yeah.
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Shane Ludtke: Okay, so, so even if we say the beginning of August. That’s just under three months ago, you know. And at that time, it was probably not quite naked eye visibility anymore. Maybe it was
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Shane Ludtke: But now it’s 16th magnitude or right around there, which is very, very faint. Like what kind of telescope, would you need to see a 16th magnitude comet like, how big do you think
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Chris Beckett: Oh, at least, I would. I mean, realistically, you’re looking at probably you know 18 inches. Anyway, I would
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Shane Ludtke: Imagine
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Chris Beckett: You know, you know, in a really good at are really good eight or 10 inch you’d be able to knock out 13th magnitude at a really dark site. So yeah, to go another three magnitudes, you’d be be up and to see it easily and other 20 inch telescope variety, for sure. Yeah.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah. The reason I bring that up is just to to highlight, you know, the life of a comment that when they come close to Earth. They can be so bright, but then fade so quickly as they travel away from the sun and to the nether reaches of the solar system. So, yeah.
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Shane Ludtke: I thought that was pretty interesting. But anyway, let’s talk about comments that we can maybe have a chance of observing
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Shane Ludtke: The first one here is comet.
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Shane Ludtke: Temple swift linear, do you have that on your
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Chris Beckett: List it
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Chris Beckett: I don’t see it on his left. So tell me about it.
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Shane Ludtke: Okay, so this is somewhat of a famous comment, but it was lost for pretty much a century, meaning like there were no observations of it. However, it was rediscovered by the linear program in well at the start of the Millennium here around 2001
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Shane Ludtke: very dim and distant object.
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Shane Ludtke: But it had a close approach to Jupiter in 2018
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Shane Ludtke: There haven’t been any visual observations of this comet in over 100 years but in. Let’s see here, mid September passing point 498 you from Earth in early November, so
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Shane Ludtke: I think we covered what an au is during a previous episodes. So that’s one astronomical unit is the distance from Earth to the sun. So point four, nine is half that distance
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Chris Beckett: Okay, I gotta hear now.
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Shane Ludtke: Okay, okay.
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Chris Beckett: You see,
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Shane Ludtke: So let me switch over to your thing.
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Chris Beckett: So it looks like it’s
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, it’s coming through the square of Pegasus.
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Chris Beckett: Right now. And so I think, I think I know why wasn’t right on the top page. It’s because
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Chris Beckett: This is a visual observers sort of ongoing log of visible comments. And if there’s been no visible observations in however many years that they won’t qualify for the page that I was on. Yeah.
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So, yeah.
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Shane Ludtke: So yeah, that’s great caveat here is, nobody knows what to expect with this comment, it may not become a break comment at all. It may not be visually observable.
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Shane Ludtke: But who knows it might be something that we can detect, but the fact that it was lost and no one’s looked at this thing for a long time, makes it interesting.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, I mean, and I got the plot up here. Now for the magnitude graph. And there’s been some photographic magnitude estimates the most recent ones, put it between 17th and
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Chris Beckett: 18th magnitude which which is pretty much beyond
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Chris Beckett: The reach of virtually all all visual telescopes. But if you noticed this about the plot, it’s already just about as bright as as it’s predicted to get in that in that November timeframe and we still have a boat. Just over a month to go
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Chris Beckett: So yeah, but the range runs out of magnitude 14 chain so
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, that’s not
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Chris Beckett: Holding Out.
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Chris Beckett: Much, much hope.
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Chris Beckett: That this one will become visible but if it does get the 14th magnitude, somebody could see it in like a like a pretty good 15 or 16 inch instrument maybe
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Shane Ludtke: Mm hmm.
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Chris Beckett: Okay, what’s next.
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Shane Ludtke: Comets seven p pawns wiki see
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Chris Beckett: Okay, you go for
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Shane Ludtke: OK, so the 2021 return is the most favorable one, then what will have seen in several decades.
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Shane Ludtke: Oh yeah, no, this is sorry that’s looking way. Oh, let me back up. We’ll talk about that one in May.
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Shane Ludtke: Okay.
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Chris Beckett: All right, I was gonna say that.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah.
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Shane Ludtke: Why not. Yeah. Actually, that’s all I have for November.
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Shane Ludtke: The rest. There’s one in December, potentially, but that’s all that I have on this list. So
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Chris Beckett: On his list. He’s, he’s got a couple
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Chris Beckett: The one that really catches my intention is is is a long period or C type common see
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Chris Beckett: Atlas and he lists that when is getting well heedless that when it’s getting towards
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Chris Beckett: You know, eighth magnitude right now.
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Chris Beckett: And it’s supposed to get a boat and other magnitude brighter.
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Chris Beckett: It’s a little bit far so it’s like right now it’s coming up through Lapis.
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Chris Beckett: And then it’s going to cut right through a Ryan and here’s the neat part is on the 18th
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Chris Beckett: Of November, it’s going to be raped by lambda or Ryan is which you don’t need to know what that means or anything.
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Chris Beckett: You just go find a Ryan in the morning sky and there’s the head of a Ryan. This is the star rate at the peak and there’s actually three stars there and if it gets to eat magnitude, you have a lot of people have like those mass produce 15 by 70 binoculars.
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Shane Ludtke: If
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Chris Beckett: If you put lambda or minus or the head of a Ryan Just in the left of those binoculars, you should stand a pretty good shot of seeing this comment.
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Chris Beckett: If it gets to seventh magnitude. So, and then he’s got another one here comet 2020 s three harass miss and
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Chris Beckett: It actually is coming up in the morning sky and it’s getting kind of low. So right now it’s up in Sexton’s and then it’s going to be cutting through Crux by the middle of the month, but he’s saying that it could go as bright as six and a half.
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Shane Ludtke: One that’s a brief moment.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, it is. So now for reference. None of these are going to be like common Neo eyes was
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Chris Beckett: But if anybody out there has really been getting sort of the comet bug and many of us do. I really, I observed lots of comments that were in these ranges when when I was getting going because
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Chris Beckett: They’re challenging to hunt down. They’re not gonna be in the same spot every night. So you have to use and develop some skills for for using the charts.
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Chris Beckett: And then you can locate them based on those, and then they’re also variable. So, sometimes they’re going to be brighter than expected.
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Chris Beckett: Sometimes you won’t be able to see them at all. So you really develop some pretty good amateur astronomy skills by trying to trying to find these so
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, she maybe you can maybe you can post a link I put the link in the show notes for this you know this this web page of you sheet is
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Chris Beckett: Common homepage and it’s great. Like I said, he’s got graphs. He’s got shirts. He’s got everything you want.
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Chris Beckett: If you want more, you can certainly get some good astronomy planetarium software like Sky Safari and then
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Chris Beckett: And then load that up but but typically most of the ones that we talked about here, ones that were hoping are going to get bright enough to see in a in a good pair of binoculars or a small telescope
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Chris Beckett: And you should be able to just use his charts. So maybe even if you take your phone out and use the link. She’s going to send it via Twitter, you’ll be able to hunt down some of those comments.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, for sure. I will tweet that out. And yeah, that’s a great webpage. I like it a lot.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, so that’s sort of my my spiel for what I’ve been able to dig up in the night sky this month and you added some some good notes and commentary in there as well. So I’m just wondering, do you have anything you wish to to add for the month anything on your watch list.
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Shane Ludtke: No, not really. The only thing I’ll mention is that like where we live, it starts to get chilly as we referenced many times
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Shane Ludtke: What I find particularly in November, actually, is my observing transitions more so from telescopic observing to more just naked eye stuff because I don’t want to spend a lot of time outdoors.
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Chris Beckett: I was gonna say
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Chris Beckett: binocular intrusive scattering style sheen’s observing switches from telescopic to football.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, that’s part of it too.
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Shane Ludtke: But you know that the like this is when binoculars binoculars are great to us all.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah.
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Shane Ludtke: Yep, they really are handy when it’s cold outside, because you just grab them and go and you know you can get some quick observing in, you don’t really have to wait for for the optics too cool
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Shane Ludtke: And often to like the, you know, you’ll focus your binoculars once and then you don’t have to worry about any of the mechanics freezing up because like on a telescope, like the focus or depending on the like the grease that’s in there you
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Shane Ludtke: can freeze to the point where they lock.
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Shane Ludtke: I’ve had zoom eyepieces lock up where you can use like the like you can’t zoom them anymore. They just, they become a fixed focal length by piece. So
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, I love the simplicity of the binoculars and like I say, this time of the years when I started doing that, more, more of that kind of astronomy.
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Chris Beckett: Yeah, and look at, you know, and I know we try to talk with things in this in this in. That’s great advice in this affordable way but I gotta, I gotta say this. This show was not sponsored or anything, but one of my favorite
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Chris Beckett: Things that I did splurge on and spend money on. I bought two of them since
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Chris Beckett: Is the feather touch focus or by starlight instrument.
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Chris Beckett: And if if anybody out there is really living in very cold climates, I cannot recommend that focus or enough
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Chris Beckett: Now, I do have the standard Tallahassee focus on one of my instruments now and I actually find that one is fine.
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Chris Beckett: But the the feather touch.
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Chris Beckett: Wow, it really, really works so well. I’ve used it down to minus 40 to 40 degrees Celsius. No wind chill and and it just works the same. It works the same at minus 40 I’ve headed out looking at the sun at at close to plus 40
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Chris Beckett: And there’s not a whole lot of moving mechanical items that you get in this world that work.
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Chris Beckett: Really and I noticed virtually I don’t really notice much of a difference at all I gotta say in that, although I did notice, the other day I was using it at minus 23
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Chris Beckett: And I did just need to adjust the friction by just a hair and this is on the
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Chris Beckett: The least expensive one that I have on on the above the top end one first, years and years 10 or 12 years ago and I’ve never ever had to adjust anything on that focus or
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Chris Beckett: In 10 or 12 years no more than that probably close to 15 years my newer one is a less costly one that’s been notified or material.
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Chris Beckett: And I just need to just sometimes do just a bit of a scoop john that when I get a 40 degrees temperature difference. So there is an endorsement for that product.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, yeah. They make excellent excellent quality focuses on it certainly is a case of cry once but enjoy the rest of your life. They are pricey, but you won’t. I don’t think anyway you’ll find a better focus or for visual astronomy, there’s
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Chris Beckett: No.
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Chris Beckett: I mean, there’s some debate on that you can certainly spend a lot
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah.
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Chris Beckett: But the but these are actually pretty you know they’re they’re the top end of I think the affordable focuses but you can certainly spend multitudes more
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Chris Beckett: But the other thing is that I really like about the way he’s built his focus was Wayne and starlight and listened to him I didn’t listen to him once and I and I goofed up and hit a ritual something for me at my expense, which is fine but
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Chris Beckett: The focuses that he makes you can move them between telescopes, because there’s various adapters that you can get. And I’ve done this. So even though it might seem like you’re spending.
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Chris Beckett: A little bit more, maybe on this focus or if you’re in these really cold or extreme climates like we are, you can actually take the cross. So I had one on one telescope
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Chris Beckett: Had one on one tak hash it decided actually was going to get new tack hash this year and
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Chris Beckett: As some people may recall, I bought the hundred millimeter. One of the reasons why I bought that is that the focus or that I had on my other tech. Has she would fit on this focus or without spending.
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Chris Beckett: A single penny. It just, it just was about a five minute process to take it over from one telescope to the next. So
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Chris Beckett: You know that that was a pretty big plus for me. So anyway, I won’t go on anymore but focuses but but that can be sort of like the last focus or year over by really, it can be so
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Shane Ludtke: And again, absolutely. Yep.
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Chris Beckett: Alright change.
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Chris Beckett: Anything else
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Shane Ludtke: That’s all my friend.
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Chris Beckett: All right, well great chatting to you and how can people stay in touch with us and send us their questions we’re getting some questions built up, we’ll do another show soon. But how can they get in touch.
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Shane Ludtke: People can find us on Twitter. We are at actual astronomy, you can DM us or just post a question there. You can email us. We are actual Astronomy at GMAIL. COM. And then through the various
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Shane Ludtke: podcast apps or YouTube channel you can just leave feedback or comments there.
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Shane Ludtke: Maybe one quick note we haven’t been updating the YouTube channel as frequently recently and we’re looking at potentially retooling that channel.
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Shane Ludtke: Yeah, to provide a little bit more of a visual component to it, you know, kind of makes sense, you know, visual component and astronomy, but
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Shane Ludtke: To come on that so
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Chris Beckett: We’re slowly working after we do this for fun. So we have to do it when we have the time and the inclination
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Shane Ludtke: Yes, exactly.
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Chris Beckett: Good stuff.
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Shane Ludtke: Right, well thanks Chris and thank you for everybody, or thank you to everybody who listens.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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