This is the Saint Louis Science Center’s NIGHT SKY UPDATE for the week of Saturday, November 11, 2023.
Information updated weekly or as needed.
Times given as local St. Louis time which is Central Standard Time (CST). For definitions of terminology used in the night sky update, click the highlighted text. If relying on times posted in Universal Time (UT), St. louis is -6 hours when CST.
Observing Highlight of the Week
The position of Uranus on November 11, 2023, with respect to the Pleiades and Jupiter. Image created using Stellarium.
This week the planets Mars, Jupiter and Uranus will be of interest along with the peaks of the Northern Taurid and Leonid meteor showers. Additionally, the Moon reaches new moon on November 13, 2023, so most of this week will also be good for deep sky viewing.
First, Mars reaches superior conjunction this week on November 18, 2023. Mars is not visible during superior conjunction as it is on the other side of the Sun. Why this position of Mars is interesting is because shortly after Mars reaches conjunction with the Sun, it will become visible again just before sunrise. After conjunction, Mars will slowly climb out of the Sun’s glare in the east before sunrise. Near the end of December is when Mar’s elongation from the Sun will be great enough that it will be safe to look for the planet.
The 2024/2025 apparition of Mars is an aphelic apparition which means it is not favorable. Aphelion is the far point in an object’s orbit, which means Mars will look smaller than if it were near perihelion. It will still be an easy planet to find once it is out of the Sun’s glare, however, telescope views will not be as good for this apparition. Surface features on Mars are expected to be visible in 4” aperture telescopes by August 6, 2024. Opposition for Mars occurs on January 15/16, 2025. If you would like to learn more about the upcoming Mars apparition, the Association of Lunar & Planetary Observers posts a detailed article for each Mars apparition which you can find here.
Uranus reaches opposition this week on November 13, 2023. As Uranus nears opposition, it becomes bright enough to see naked eye for those with dark skies. At 5.6 magnitude, it is a naked eye object, but to truly spot it you will need a good star atlas that has stars down to 7th or 8th magnitude. For most of us, binoculars will be needed to spot the third largest planet in the solar system.
To find Uranus, start by locating the constellation Aries. The easiest way to do this is to first find Orion. Orion becomes visible in the southeast by 10 pm; look for the tell-tale three belt stars in a line. Once you find the star of Orion’s Belt, to the right of these stars you will find a V-shape of stars which is the nose of the constellation Taurus. Not far from this, you will find a small spoon shaped group of stars which is the famed Pleiades star cluster. Once you find this cluster, about 20° to the west you will find the planet Jupiter. Uranus is found about halfway between Jupiter and the Pleiades. Once you generally have the right area, you will then need to use a star atlas or a planetarium software such as Stellarium to identify where Uranus is in the star field. The two bright stars near Uranus are 57 Ari and 58 Ari.
The best views of Uranus will be through a telescope. Any telescope will reveal that Uranus resolves into a disk shape. This is important because it is how you can confirm you have found the planet. At 5.6 magnitude, there will be several stars around it with similar magnitudes. It could be easy to confuse a star for the planet. Due to planets being closer to us then stars are, planets will resolve into a disk shape while stars remain points. Moderate sized telescopes might real some color to Uranus. Most describe the planet as appearing mostly grey with a hint of aquamarine. Seeing conditions and your own vision and perception will have an impact on what color you see.
There are also several shadow transits of the Jovian moons Io and Europa this week. The most interesting one occurs on November 13, 2023. Around 6:00 p.m. on November 13, the Moon Io will start to transit the visible side of Jupiter. Around 6:24 p.m. Io’s shadow starts to transit. What makes this one interesting is both the Moon and its shadow will transit across the Great Red Spot. Both the Moon and shadow will flank the Great Red Spot around 6:54 p.m. It will be best to use an 8-inch or larger telescope to see this.
Finally, two meteor showers peak this week. The Northern Taurids peak on November 12, 2023. This is one of four meteor showers caused by Comet 2P/Encke. At peak activity, the Northern Taurids are expected to produce roughly 2 meteors per hour. It is considered a minor meteor shower so its display is not impressive, but if you are already out observing, you may be able to see a few Taurids this week.
The Leonids also peak this week on November 18, 2023. The Leonids are famous for several historic outbursts that produced peaks rates of thousands of meteors per hour. These outbursts are called meteor storms. The Leonid storms appear to occur over a period of roughly 33 years. This makes sense as the parent comet of the meteor shower, 55P/Temple-Tuttle, has an orbital period of 33 years. Each time it orbits the Sun, the comet leaves behind a fresh stream of debris. When a meteor storm occurs, Earth encounters one of the historic debris streams left by the comet. While this sounds exciting, there is no guarantee a meteor storm will occur every 33 years. In fact, the next time a storm is expected is not until 2099. Unfortunately, when the comet returns to the inner solar system in 2031 and 2064, Earth is not expected to pass through any of the dense historic debris streams. Around those years, it is possible there may be displays of 100 meteors per hour, but we will have to wait and see. Until then, The Leonids normally produce around 15 meteors per hour during peak activity.
You can learn more about meteor showers at
The Sun and Moon
The Moon as seen from the International Space Station, on July 31, 2011.
Credit: NASA
Sun
Sunrise is at 6:38 a.m. on Saturday, November 11 and sunset is at 4:51 p.m. providing us with roughly 10 hours of daylight this week. Even after sunset, light from the Sun will dimly illuminate our sky for about 1 hour and 30 minutes. This period is called twilight, which ends around 6:22 p.m. this week. For those with a sundial, local noon occurs around 11:44 a.m. this week.
| Day | Sunrise | Sunset | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11-Nov | 6:38 a.m. | 4:51 p.m. | ||||||||||
| 12-Nov | 6:39 a.m. | 4:50 p.m. | ||||||||||
| 13-Nov | 6:40 a.m. | 4:49 p.m. | ||||||||||
| 14-Nov | 6:41 a.m. | 4:48 p.m. | ||||||||||
| 15-Nov | 6:43 a.m. | 4:48 p.m. | ||||||||||
| 16-Nov | 6:44 a.m. | 4:47 p.m. | ||||||||||
| 17-Nov | 6:45 a.m. | 4:46 p.m. | ||||||||||
| 18-Nov | 6:46 a.m. | 4:45 p.m. | ||||||||||
| 19-Nov | 6:47 a.m. | 4:45 p.m. |
Moon
Moonrise for Saturday, November 11 was at 4:49 a.m. and moonset occurred at 3:53 p.m. On Saturday, November 11, the Moon will exhibit a waning crescent phase with roughly 2% disk illumination. New moon occurs on November 13, 2023, at 3:27 a.m. By the end of the week the Moon will exhibit a waxing crescent phase with 44% disk illumination.
International Space Station (ISS) Observing
There are several visible passes of ISS from St. Louis for the week of November 11. They occur during evening hours. The table below lists the best of these passes that will be seen from St. Louis. If you do not live in the area, you can use https://heavens-above.com/ to set your viewing location and get times for where you are.
Catch ISS from St. Louis starting Saturday, November 11, 2023
| Date | Starts | Max. altitude | Ends | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | Alt. | Az. | Time | Alt. | Az. | Time | Alt. | Az. | ||
| 16 Nov | -3.9 | 18:09:31 | 10 | SW | 18:12:52 | 76 | SE | 18:13:43 | 47 | ENE |
| 17 Nov | -3.1 | 17:21:54 | 10 | SSW | 17:25:05 | 40 | SE | 17:28:02 | 11 | ENE |
| 19 Nov | -3.4 | 17:22:38 | 10 | WSW | 17:25:58 | 62 | NW | 17:29:18 | 10 | NE |
Magnitude (Mag): The Measure of brightness for a celestial object. The lower the value is, the brighter the object will be.
Altitude (Alt): The angle of a celestial object measured upwards from the observer’s horizon.
Azimuth (Az): The direction of a celestial object, measured clockwise from an observer’s location with north being 0°, east being 90°, south being 180° and west being 270°.
Detailed information regarding all unmanned exploration of our universe, missions past, present, and planned, can be found at Jet Propulsion Laboratories:
The Visible Planets
Looking southeast at 7:00 p.m. on November 12, 2023. Credit: Stellarium, EG
Looking southeast at 4:30 a.m. on November 13, 2023. Credit: Stellarium, EG
This week, three naked eye planets will be visible. Saturn will be found in the southeast once it is dark. Jupiter is easy to find in the east by 7:00 p.m. Venus will be easy to find in the east before sunrise.
Venus
Venus rises this week around 2:56 a.m. It will be easy to spot for most by 4:00 a.m. If you have a clear view of the planet, telescopes will reveal a gibbous phase with roughly 60.5% disk illumination. Now that Venus is past dichotomy, it is beginning to head back towards the Sun from our perspective. As this continues, Venus’s disk illumination will increase as it heads towards superior conjunction on June 4, 2024.
Jupiter
Jupiter has passed opposition and as such it will rise before the Sun sets. Jupiter will be easy to spot in the east once it is dark outside. If you have considerable trees or buildings to the east, you may have to wait about an hour after sunset to spot this giant world.
Saturn
Start looking for Saturn in the south about 30 minutes after sunset. If you have lots of trees or buildings, you may have to wait an hour or so after it rises before it will be visible. Saturn will set around midnight.
James S. McDonnell Planetarium
Night Sky Update: November 11-19, 2023