Venus makes a return as the “morning star;” before sunrise on Nov. 6th, Venus is joined by the star Spica, and an extremely thin waning crescent Moon.
Conjunction of a very VERY thin waning crescent Moon, Venus and the star Spica in the early morning sky, Nov. 6, 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.Over the week, Venus will creep slowly higher and closer to Spica; the two will appear very close to each other on the morning of Nov. 12th.
Conjunction of Venus and the star Spica in the early morning sky, Nov. 12, 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.A waxing crescent Moon will appear in the southwestern sky by Saturn after sunset on Nov. 10th.
Conjunction of the waxing crescent Moon and Saturn in the southwestern sky shortly after sunset on Nov. 10, 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.Mars, high in the southern sky after sunset, continues to be an excellent observing target this week.
Mars and Saturn in the south-southern sky after sunset on Nov. 6, 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.Observing Target: Conjunction of the Moon and Saturn
Conjunction of the waxing crescent Moon and Saturn in the southwestern sky shortly after sunset on Nov. 11, 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.The Moon will appear very near the planet Saturn after sunset on Nov. 11th.
Comets
Comet 46P/Wirtanen continues to offer a great target for astrophotographers:
Comet 46P/Wirtanen. Taken by Yasushi Aoshima on November 2, 2018 @ Ishikawa, JAPANYou can find Comet 46P/Wirtanen in the southern sky after midnight this week.
Position of Comet 46P/Wirtanen Nov. 6-12 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.Northern Taurids Meteor Shower
Peak night: Nov 10-11, 2018. Active from Oct. 19 – Dec.10.
Radiant: 03:52 +22.7° – ZHR: 5 – Velocity: 18 miles/sec (medium – 30km/sec) – Parent Object: 2P/Encke
Northern Taurids Meteor Shower Radiant. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.Interactive graphic showing the meteoroid stream from comet 2P/Encke, responsible for the Northern Taurids meteor shower:
[iframe src=’https://www.meteorshowers.org/view/iau-17′]
The Moon
The Moon is a waning crescent heading towards the new on Nov. 8th; the Moon will reappear as a waxing crescent in the western sky around dusk on Nov. 9th.
The Moon from Nov. 6-12, 2018. Visualizations by Ernie Wright.The Sun
The sun has been spot-free for 19 days, and there are coronal holes seemingly everywhere! SpaceWeather.com says “Another large hole in the sun’s atmosphere is turning toward Earth, spewing a stream of solar wind that should reach our planet on Nov. 10th or 11th. A similar stream sparked a G2-class geomagnetic storm and auroras visible from the USA on Nov. 4-5.”
Unlike the last couple weeks, there were several long-lasting prominences on the Sun’s limb – crack out those solar telescopes!
The solar wind speed is 451.7 km/sec, with a density of 5.8 protons/cm3.
Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun’s limb (the white circle).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.
Asteroids
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2018 VL |
2018-Oct-31
|
1.5 LD
|
7.9
|
11
|
| 2018 VB |
2018-Nov-02
|
5.7 LD
|
8.9
|
23
|
| 2018 UD3 |
2018-Nov-02
|
1.6 LD
|
7.3
|
21
|
| 2018 VP1 |
2018-Nov-02
|
0.4 LD
|
9.8
|
3
|
| 2018 VT |
2018-Nov-02
|
9 LD
|
12
|
14
|
| 2018 VG |
2018-Nov-03
|
1.2 LD
|
7.6
|
13
|
| 2018 VA1 |
2018-Nov-04
|
7.6 LD
|
7.8
|
15
|
| 2018 UY1 |
2018-Nov-04
|
7.5 LD
|
8.3
|
54
|
| 2002 VE68 |
2018-Nov-04
|
14.7 LD
|
8.6
|
282
|
| 2018 TF3 |
2018-Nov-05
|
7.8 LD
|
20.6
|
306
|
| 2018 VW |
2018-Nov-06
|
15.4 LD
|
13
|
63
|
| 2018 VN1 |
2018-Nov-06
|
8.7 LD
|
5.2
|
21
|
| 2010 VQ |
2018-Nov-07
|
15.6 LD
|
3.8
|
10
|
| 2018 VS1 |
2018-Nov-10
|
3.6 LD
|
10.6
|
17
|
| 2018 VR1 |
2018-Nov-10
|
13.2 LD
|
9.3
|
18
|
| 2018 UQ1 |
2018-Nov-13
|
9.4 LD
|
12.3
|
148
|
| 2018 VK1 |
2018-Nov-14
|
10.2 LD
|
2.3
|
12
|
| 2007 UL12 |
2018-Nov-15
|
16.4 LD
|
25.8
|
235
|
| 2009 WB105 |
2018-Nov-25
|
15.2 LD
|
18.9
|
71
|
| 2008 WD14 |
2018-Nov-27
|
7.4 LD
|
9.3
|
93
|
| 2001 WO15 |
2018-Nov-28
|
13.6 LD
|
11.7
|
107
|
| 2018 TG6 |
2018-Dec-02
|
3.9 LD
|
1.4
|
12
|
| 2013 VX4 |
2018-Dec-09
|
4.1 LD
|
6.6
|
65
|
| 2015 XX169 |
2018-Dec-13
|
17 LD
|
5.8
|
12
|
| 2017 XQ60 |
2018-Dec-21
|
11.3 LD
|
15.6
|
47
|
| 163899 |
2018-Dec-22
|
7.4 LD
|
6.2
|
1232
|
| 418849 |
2018-Dec-23
|
16.6 LD
|
17.6
|
269
|
| 2014 AD16 |
2019-Jan-04
|
12.9 LD
|
9.4
|
12
|
Notes: LD means “Lunar Distance.” 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. Table from SpaceWeather.com
Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 33, this year: 1655, all time: 19053.
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 1936 (as of Nov. 6, 2018)
Minor Planets discovered: 789,069 (as of Oct. 30, 2018)
Fireballs
On Nov. 5 2018, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 15 fireballs.
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits from Nov 5, 2018 intersect at a single point–Earth. Source: Spaceweather.comThe Solar System
This is the position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the solar system:
Position of the planets and several spacecraft in the inner solar system, Nov. 6, 2018. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Position of the planets in the middle solar system, Nov. 6, 2018. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Position of the planets in the outer solar system, Nov. 6, 2018. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Objects in the Kuiper Belt – past the orbit of Neptune, Nov. 6, 2018. Credit: Universe Sandbox2 / Bob Trembley.Solar System News
Spacecraft
Kepler Space Telescope Retired
Parker Solar Probe
OSIRIS-REx
Mars InSight
Exoplanets
Confirmed Exoplanets: 3,826 (10/26/2018)
Multi-Planet Systems: 633 (10/26/2018)
Kepler Candidate Exoplanets: 4,717 (8/16/2018)
TESS Candidate Exoplanets: 44
-Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive
Apps used for this post:
NASA Eyes on the Solar System: an immersive 3D solar system and space mission simulator – free for the PC /MAC.
I maintain the unofficial NASA Eyes Facebook page.
Stellarium: a free open source planetarium app for PC/MAC/Linux. It’s a great tool for planning observing sessions.
2018 is NASA’s 60th Anniversary!
