Last week I had students in my after-school astronomy and space science club build and fly rockets in Kerbal Space Program. I had them launch and recover a small pre-made rocket, and build-from-scratch a sub-orbital crewed rocket, similar to a Mercury Redstone. The very next day, I gave the “In the News” report at the meeting of the Warren Astronomical Society – I shamelessly pulled material from my previous “In the Sky” post; I included a slide about the Europa Clipper mission, and a couple about mid-ocean rift ecosystems and extremophiles.
There will be a conjunction of Venus and Jupiter low on the southwestern horizon all week; Saturn continues to appear high above the southwestern horizon, and makes for an excellent observing target after Jupiter and Venus have set.

Kerbal Space Program has been posting bits of astronomy news and space history on their social media feeds lately – I approve!
A very thin waxing crescent Moon joins the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter on November 28th.
The Moon appears near Venus low above the southwestern horizon after sunset on Nov. 28th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob TrembleyOn Nov. 29th, the Moon appears near Saturn; Jupiter and Venus will have moved away from each other.

Mercury appears above the southeastern horizon before sunrise this week, with Mars and the star Spica lining up with each other. I actually went outside to see if I could see Mercury this morning, but there was so much haze in the air that I could barely see Mars – the horizon was completely obscured.

What’s that bright star in the southern sky after sunset? Fomalhaut.

The constellation Canis Major and Sirius, the brightest star in our skies, rises in the southeastern sky at midnight.

As I was writing this post, I wondered what the sky from the south pole would look like, so I set Stellarium’s location there, and had a eye-blink moment when I saw “north” as the only cardinal coordinate all the way around me.
M 41
Messier 41 (also known as M41 or NGC 2287) is an open cluster in the constellation Canis Major. It was discovered by Giovanni Batista Hodierna before 1654 and was perhaps known to Aristotle about 325 BC. M41 lies about four degrees almost exactly south of Sirius, and forms a triangle with it and Nu2 Canis Majoris—all three can be seen in the same field in binoculars. The cluster itself covers an area around the size of the full moon. It contains about 100 stars including several red giants, the brightest being a spectral type K3 giant of apparent magnitude 6.3 near the cluster’s center, and a number of white dwarfs. The cluster is estimated to be moving away from us at 23.3 km/s. The diameter of the cluster is between 25 and 26 light years. It is estimated to be 190 million years old, and cluster properties and dynamics suggest a total life expectancy of 500 million years for this cluster, before it will have disintegrated. – Wikipedia
The new Moon occurs on Nov. 26th, and will not be visible for a couple days.
After Nov. 26th, the Moon will be a waxing crescent, visible toward the southwest in early evening.

Moon News
OK… this would completely creep-out my arachnophobic wife, but I can see why multi-legged insect-like robot designs would have a lot of potential for planetary exploration.
The Sun has been spot-free for 13 days; the northern coronal hole seems to have enlarged from last week, and there is a large southern hole this week. A smaller coronal hole appears below the equator – where there is also a region of coronal loop activity.

A rather large set of prominences on one limb of the Sun today! I’m going to have to crack out my solar telescope when I finish this post!

Facebook: SolarActivity
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10218381540523602&set=gm.2804986646179328&type=3&theater&ifg=1
The solar wind speed is 412.1 km/sec (↑), with a density of 4.4 protons/cm3 (↓) at 1550 UT.

You can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.
Sun News
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
2019 WN1 |
2019-Dec-01
|
4.3 LD
|
10.1
|
18
|
2017 AP4 |
2019-Dec-03
|
8.5 LD
|
7.5
|
15
|
2019 WW |
2019-Dec-05
|
8.6 LD
|
9.8
|
41
|
2018 XW2 |
2019-Dec-07
|
17.4 LD
|
13
|
28
|
2019 VH5 |
2019-Dec-08
|
18 LD
|
9.8
|
72
|
216258 |
2019-Dec-20
|
15.3 LD
|
11.8
|
324
|
2013 XY20 |
2019-Dec-21
|
18.4 LD
|
1.9
|
28
|
2017 XQ60 |
2019-Dec-22
|
11 LD
|
15.6
|
47
|
310442 |
2019-Dec-26
|
19 LD
|
12.3
|
372
|
2019 AE3 |
2020-Jan-02
|
4.9 LD
|
8.2
|
13
|
2019 UO |
2020-Jan-10
|
11.8 LD
|
9.4
|
367
|
2011 EP51 |
2020-Jan-15
|
19.6 LD
|
7.1
|
32
|
2017 RZ15 |
2020-Jan-15
|
12.1 LD
|
7.4
|
14
|
2009 BH2 |
2020-Jan-18
|
14.6 LD
|
17.9
|
118
|
2013 DU |
2020-Jan-20
|
15.3 LD
|
6.4
|
59
|
2019 TF2 |
2020-Jan-23
|
16.2 LD
|
1.6
|
18
|
2018 BM5 |
2020-Jan-23
|
13.1 LD
|
8.6
|
12
|
Notes: LD means “Lunar Distance.” 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. Red highlighted entries are asteroids that either pass very close, or very large with high relative velocities to the Earth. Table from SpaceWeather.com
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018 (last updated Oct. 1, 2019)
Minor Planets discovered: 840,292 (+164)
Asteroid News: Possible Asteroid Impact Ejecta Blanket on Mars
On Nov. 25, 2019, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 25 fireballs.
(20 sporadics, 3 omicron Eridanids, 1 Leonids, 1 Nov. omega Orionid)

Fireball News
Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system:

Position of the planets and a couple bodies in the middle solar system:

Position of the planets and a several bodies in the outer solar system:

Position of binary transneptunian object (TNO) and possible dwarf planet 38628 Huya and its satellite in the outer solar system:
38628 Huya (/huːˈjɑː/ hoo-YAH), provisional designation 2000 EB173, is a trans-Neptunian object with a large satellite. It is located in the Kuiper belt, a region of icy objects orbiting beyond Neptune in the outer Solar System. Huya is classfied as a plutino, a dynamical class of trans-Neptunian objects with orbits in a 3:2 orbital resonance with Neptune. It was discovered by the Quasar Equatorial Survey Team and was identified by Venezuelan astronomer Ignacio Ferrín in March 2000. It is named after Juyá, the mythological rain god of the Wayuu people native to South America.
Huya’s surface is moderately red in color due to the presence of complex organic compounds on its surface. Water ice has been suspected to be also present on its surface, although water ice has not been directly detected on Huya. Huya is considered as a mid-sized trans-Neptunian object, with an estimated diameter of about 400 km (250 mi). Huya was considered to be a possible dwarf planet, though its relatively small size and dark surface imply that it never collapsed into a truly solid body and thus may never have been in hydrostatic equilibrium. – Wikipedia
Like Pluto and Charon, Huya and its satellite orbit around a barycenter; the Huya system’s barycenter is just below the surface of Huya: