Starwatch Newsletter Minnesota Starwatch is a tape-recorded message describing the night sky in the Midwest, which can be called by telelphone number (612) 624-2001 It is updated montly, and is produced by the Department of Astronomy, University of Minnesota 116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455

The month starts off with a new moon on the 4th; the full moon is on the 19th, and the first and third quarters are on the 11th, and the 27th of the month.

The planet to watch in the morning this month is Venus. It will rise about 1 hour before sunrise in the beginning of the month, and 3 hours before sunrise towards the end of the month, and can be seen 10-30 degrees above horizon at sunrise. Saturn is nearing opposition in November, which means that it is on the opposite side of the sky from the Sun, and so rises at around sunset, in the early evening. A planet close to opposition exhibits retrograde motion: it moves westward relative to the distant stars. This is because Earth is overtaking the more distant and hence more slowly moving Saturn, and so Saturn appears to move "backward" compared to its usual direction of motion, or retrograde. In addition, Saturn's rings happen to be maximally tilted right now, and are great for viewing with a small telescope or a good pair of binoculars. Saturn will appear bright in the early evening, but it will be outshone by a much brighter planet, Jupiter, when it rises above the horizon at around 10pm.

The highlight of the month is the Leonid meteor shower, which will occur on the night of November 18-19th. On that night the Earth will be intersecting the trail of a old comet. The small particles that we will be encountering this mid-November were left behind by the comet on its 1767 and 1866 passages through this neighborhood of the Solar System. Somewhat unfortunately, the meteor shower will take place during a full moon, reducing the visibility of meteors. In spite of that, the shower is expected to generate about a 1000 shooting stars per hour! Be sure to catch this event, because our next chance to see a such a dramatic display of Leonids will not happen for about a century.

Friday night telescope viewing begins at 8:00 p.m. during the month of November. Please call 612/626-0034 for more information.

For those interested in the Minnesota Astronomical Society, call 651/649-4861 for information on their upcoming events.

Minnesota Starwatch is available on-line at http://www.astro.umn.edu/Outreach/pub_out.html

This has been Minnesota Starwatch, produced by the University of Minnesota Astronomy Department in cooperation with WCCO Weather Center.

Last Updated: Wed Oct 23 16:02:33 2002