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This Month's Night Sky - NOTE: The next paragraph describes the sky as it appears at 10 pm EST (11 pm EDT) near mid- month. The sky also looks this way at 11 pm EST (midnight EDT) during the beginning of the month and at 9 pm EST (10 pm EDT) by month's end.

This Month's Night Sky - NOTE: The sky appears this way at 10 pm EST (11 pm EDT) near mid-month. The sky also looks this way at 11 pm EST (midnight EDT) at the beginning of the month and at 9 pm EST (10 pm EDT) by month's end.

From a dark site, the Milky Way (a spiral arm of our galaxy) stretches overhead from horizon to horizon. Find the distinctive "W" asterism of the constellation Cassiopeia high overhead. Although the now familiar Summer Triangle sinks into the W, the Great Square of Pegasus still shines high in the SW. The red star, Aldebaran (Taurus) below the famous naked eye star cluster, the Pleiades, shines in the SE along with yellow Capella (Auriga).

All five of the naked-eye planets will be visible in this month's sky! Look ESE about a half hour before dawn to see MERCURY climb into the early morning sky. It will be at its peak altitude on the 8th.(its "greatest elongation"). This will be its best morning apparition of the year. Look for bright VENUS high above Mercury in the early morning sky. Red-orange MARS rises in the E about three hours after sunset. Jupiter appears low in the SW after sunset. It is bright enough to be visible through twilight's glow. Early this month yellowish SATURN rises at about 2 am and rises earlier each evening until it's "up" by midnight at the end of the month. NOTE: all of these planets, except Jupiter are visible in the early morning sky. The LEONID METEOR SHOWER peak early in the morning of the !8th. Watch for bright "fireballs" as dawn begins.

Calendar of Events

NOTE: For those observers not in the ET zone, convert the calendar times to your zone's time by subtracting one hour for CT, two for MT and three for PT. Don't forget to adjust for Daylight Savings Time when necessary by subtracting one hour from your planisphere's time.; Dawn and dusk times must also be corrected. See your local newspaper, TV news, or cable TV's Weather Channel for sunrise and sunset times. Unfortunately some of these events may occur during daylight hours in your area.

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Lunar Almanac for November 2007

Phases of the Moon	Phase and Date(s)	Best viewed before local midnight
	New 09	Deep Space Objects
	1st. Qtr 17	Planets & Moon
	Full 24	Moon
	Last Qtr 01	Deep Space & Planets

Topic of the month: Lunar feature: Clavius

Clavius is one of the largest craters on the Moon's "near side", the side that faces the Earth. Although very old, it is unusually well preserved. It is approximately 145 miles wide; so wide that its edges are below the horizon, if you were standing on the floor in its center. An unusual feature is an arc of smaller craters, growing progressively more tiny. The largest of these craterlets (25 miles wide) is called Rutherford and is fused with Clavius' SE rim. Further study will reveal an interesting assortment of central peaks and other details. And by the way, Clavius was the site of the ET's dark monolith that was central to Stanley Kubrick's 1968 classic film, "2001, A Space Odyssey", based on the writings of Arthur C. Clarke. --See you next month ! Ron

The above image was taken from Damian Peach's web site, " The Moon in Close Up " from Damian Peach's Views of the Solar System at www.damianpeach.com . This image is reproduced by permission.

This installment of "Whats Up?" is ©2007 Ronald A. Leeseberg, encoded by Dawn Jenkins for Astra's Stargate.

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