Minnesota Starwatch for November 2006
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Starwatch Newsletter

Minnesota Starwatch is a newsletter describing the night sky in the Midwest.

It is updated monthly, and is produced by the
Department of Astronomy, University of Minnesota
116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455

Minnesota Starwatch for November 2006

This is Minnesota Starwatch for November 2006. Except for Saturn all the bright planets are positioned close to the Sun's direction this month, making them pretty difficult to see. Venus, Mars and Jupiter are on the far side of the Sun in their motions, so near their greatest distances from Earth as well as being in the Sun's glare.

Mercury is more interesting, since on the afternoon of November 8th , it will pass between the Earth and the Sun, producing what astronomers call a 'transit'. If skies are clear, cautious observers in Minnesota should be able to see a tiny black dot appearing on the eastern edge of the Sun's disk beginning about 1:14 PM CST. Mercury will be south of the center of the Sun's image around 3:40 PM and will remain in front of the Sun until after sunset in our location. Although Mercury passes between the Earth and the Sun roughly 3 times each year, transits are not common. Usually Mercury crosses to the north or south of the Sun, since its orbit is tilted with respect to the Earth's. The last transit of Mercury was in 2003, but the next one does not occur until May 9, 2016. Observers should use great care in looking for Mercury on the face of the Sun, since they can easily be permanently blinded by looking directly at the Sun. The best approach is to project a telescopic or binocular image of the sun onto a white screen, although there are special sun filters designed for use with telescopes or binoculars. Also be aware that Mercury's disk is very small, so not easy to spot. It is roughly the size of a dime seen at a distance of 500 yards. Almost 200 Mercuries would fit across the Sun's image. Sunspots, which are cool and relatively dark regions in the Sun's atmosphere, are typically bigger in appearance. By the end of November Mercury should be visible on its own, more than 15 degrees above the east-southeast horizon just before sunrise.

Saturn, the only classical planet that is easy to observe this month, rises in the east-northeast late in the evening and will be high in the southern sky before sunrise. Saturn is relatively fainter than we have seen in recent years, however, because its very bright rings are close to being edge on so that they do not contribute much reflected sunlight.

The Leonid meteor shower should return in mid-November to relatively moonless skies. These meteors come from debris shed by the comet Temple-Tuttle. While they are not expected to be especially intense this year, there are predictions of a possible burst on the night of November 18th as the Earth crosses a debris trail shed by the comet during its passage through the inner solar system in 1932. The best observing locations are in Europe and Africa, but observers in North America may want to pay attention for meteors near the eastern horizon during the evening hours.

The Minnesota Starwatch is produced by the University of Minnesota Astronomy Department.