Email this article

Daylight Saving Time ends

By Lewis McCool �2009

In History

Nov. 2, 1917 – The 100-inch telescope at Mt. Wilson near Los Angeles was first used (“first light”). Firefighters saved the facility from massive wild fire this summer.

Nov. 8, 1656 – Birth date of English astronomer Edmund Halley. A friend of Issac Newton, Halley was the first to calculate the orbit of a comet (using Newton’s laws of motion).

Nov. 9, 1934 – Birth date of astronomer, Pulitzer Prize winning author and TV celebrity Carl Sagan. Sagan died in 1996.

Nov. 14, 1969 – The second manned moon landing mission, Apollo 12, was launched.

Nov. 15, 1738 – Birth date of British astronomer William Herschel. Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781.

Nov. 16, 1974 – The 1,000-foot-diameter radio telescope near Arecibo, Puerto Rico, broadcast an interstellar message aimed at the Hercules globular cluster. The 50,000 or so stars are about 34,000 light years away, so the message is about 0.1 per cent of the way there.

Nov. 20, 1889 – Birth date of American astronomer Edwin Hubble.

MOON PHASES

Full: Nov. 2, 12:14 p.m. (Beaver or Hunter’s Moon)

Last quarter: Nov. 9, 8:56 a.m.

New: Nov. 16, 12:14 p.m.

First quarter: Nov. 24, 2:39 p.m.

November begins with the end of Daylight Saving Time for the year, granting us an extra hour of darkness in the evening. At 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1, turn your clock back an hour.

Once we're rid of DST, the sky will be dark before 7 p.m., making it easy to get in some early stargazing.

With cooperation from the weather, the sky will be clear and dark as it can be for the annual Leonid Meteor Shower, which peaks on the morning of Nov. 17. The moon, just past new phase, won't be around. This year's shower could be a great one. Leonids typically produce 25 to 50 meteors per hour near the peak. Some experts say observers at dark-sky sites could see up to 100 of the speedy "shooting stars" per hour this year.

The radiant point in the constellation Leo rises a little after midnight, so the best observing time is from around 1 a.m. until morning twilight begins (around 5:20). Bundle up, stay up and enjoy the show. It should still be good on the morning of the 18th.

There are some exciting things going on in the solar system that we can't see.

Smaller and more distant than Pluto, dwarf planet Haumea is a challenge to study, but professional astronomers have been making remarkable discoveries. It was recently determined that Haumea is the fastest-spinning large object in the solar system. A Haumea day equals about 3.9 Earth hours. The speed of rotation causes the dwarf planet to bulge at its equator, making it oval shaped. Its year equals 285 Earth years. Recent studies of the object's reflected light suggest that there is a large dark red spot on what was previously thought to be a uniform, white, icy body.

Haumea, named for the Hawaiian goddess of fertility and childbirth, has at least two children (moons).

Back in our neighborhood . . .

Three months past opposition, this is still a good time to take a look a Jupiter (magnitude minus 2.4). In Capricornus, it sets around midnight early in November and a little after 10 p.m. at month's end, so take advantage of early darkness to enjoy it and its four Galilean moons. They are easy to spot in binoculars or a small telescope. Look for our moon nearby on the 23rd.

Mars (magnitude 0.4) opens the month right smack in the middle of the Beehive star cluster (M44) in the constellation Cancer. With Mars aligned between Earth and the cluster, we get a great opportunity to observe the planet's motion. With a modest telescope, it only takes a couple of hours to notice Mars' movement relative to the cluster's brighter stars. Have a look beginning right after midnight on the morning of Nov. 1. A day later, the Red Planet will have moved to the edge of the cluster. Mars rises earlier and brightens a bit each night throughout the month. The moon will be in the vicinity on the 9th.

Shining at magnitude 1, Saturn, in Virgo, rises a little after 3 a.m. early in the month and before 2 a.m. at month's end. Look for the crescent moon nearby on the morning of the 12th.

Brilliant Venus (magnitude minus 3.9) can still be seen low in the east before sunrise. However, our nearest planetary neighbor is sinking toward the sun. Early in the month, Venus rises about an hour and a half. It rises less than an hour before the sun at month's end.

Mercury is too close to the sun to be seen this month. It reaches superior conjunction (opposite the sun from Earth) on the 5th.

Lewis McCool writes from his home near Dolores, Colo., where he can take advantage of clear nights and dark skies.