Moon night sky11/10/2023 Credit: Astronomy: Roen Kellyĭistant Neptune is nearly at opposition, but first it’s making a close pass of the 5th-magnitude star 20 Piscium in Pisces the Fish. Moon Phase: Waning crescent (24%) The solar system’s most distant planet reaches opposition this month, shortly after passing 5th-magnitude 20 Piscium. This star is part of Leo’s Sickle asterism, which also includes Regulus (Alpha Leonis) and Eta (η), Gamma (γ), Mu (μ), and Epsilon (ϵ) Leonis. This morning, look for Nishumura just less than 2° southeast of 3rd-magnitude Zeta (ζ) Leonis. So, it’s really best to try searching it out with binoculars, a telescope, or a long-exposure photograph - all of which will show the green glow of the comet’s coma. The comet is both fuzzy and close to the horizon, standing less than 10° high in the east an hour before sunrise this morning. You may know that anything brighter than magnitude 5 should be visible to the naked eye - but in this case, there’s a catch. You can track its position day by day using the chart above. It’s expected to continue brightening through perihelion, perhaps reaching magnitude 3 or even 2 before it disappears from view. By today, it should be roughly magnitude 4. But it’s also brightening rapidly - on September 6, it was recorded at magnitude 5. So, we need to catch it now, as it’s rising later each morning and tracking quickly eastward through Leo. On September 17 it will reach that point from inside Mercury’s orbit.īy then, the comet will be too close to the Sun for us to see in the sky. Newly discovered just a few weeks ago, it is quickly approaching perihelion, the closest it will come to the Sun. Now is the time to catch the bright Comet C/2023 P1 (Nishimura). It is visible for about another week in the predawn sky. Comet Nishimura moves quickly through Leo. The Moon’s illumination is given at 12 P.M. *Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40° N 90° W. Nonetheless, the Pleiades might appear to hang in the sky in the shape of a tiny spoon. Many people mistake this cluster when viewed with the naked eye for the Little Dipper asterism the latter is much larger and always in the north, anchored at the end of its handle by the North Star, Polaris. Too much magnification won’t show many stars at all, as you’ll be zoomed in a little too much. It’s so large - about 110′ across - that it’s best viewed with binoculars or a low-power scope. In truth, there are some 500 stars in the Pleiades. The cluster’s visibility can be a great way to test your eyesight and the conditions at your observing site - how many individual stars can you pick out by eye? Most people can easily see six, but nine or more may appear when conditions are excellent and eyesight is at its peak. This naked-eye object has been known since antiquity, and its rising likely marked the changing of the seasons for ancient skywatchers.Īlso cataloged as M45, the Pleiades is a young grouping of stars around 100 million years old. Within a few hours of sunset, the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus is visible well above the horizon. Credit: Dmitry Kolesnikov (Flickr)Īlthough the heat of summer still lingers, the constellations of winter are starting to rise earlier each night. It’s a beautiful scene you won’t want to miss. The Moon meets up with brilliant Venus near M44, also known as the Beehive Cluster, in Cancer.
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