Earthsky Tonight - Nov 11 2009

Moon, Saturn light up wee hours on November 12

Tonight is NOV 11, 2009

Print Email

Only early birds will see the waning crescent moon with the planet Saturn in the wee hours tomorrow on Thursday, November 12. As seen from world over, these two worlds will be shining in the east to southeast from about 3:00 a.m. until early dawn.

Our sky chart shows the eastern sky for about one hour before sunup. Given a level terrain in the direction of sunrise, the blazing planet Venus – the most brilliant point of light in the heavens – will be just above the horizon. Although Saturn is as brilliant as a first-magnitude star, Venus shines some 100 times more brightly than Saturn does. To catch Saturn, the farthest world that you can easily see with the unaided eye, you must be willing to get up an hour or more before sunrise.

The moon and Saturn appear rather close together on the sky’s dome, but they’re actually far apart in space. At nearly 234,000 miles away, the moon is only around 1.3 light-seconds away from Earth. In contrast, the planet Saturn looms some 84 light-minutes away.

As for Venus, it is much farther away than the moon but closer to us than Saturn is. Tomorrow morning, Venus will be about 14 light-minutes away.

North Taurid meteor shower to peak tonight

Although the North Taurid meteor shower is a fairly modest shower, it is expected to peak tonight (November 11-12). Watch from mid-evening till dawn, with the best viewing expected at or shortly after midnight. You may see about 10 meteors per hour. For more information, see EarthSky’s meteor shower guide for 2009.