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By Mike Vergara, 951-461-2889 Ah, November! We're back to standard time, the nights are long and cool, and our winter-sky friends are returning for another season. The star-map is for November 15 at 8:00PM PST. It's always surprising to me that some summer constellations are still visible this time of year. For example, there are three bright stars called Vega, Altair, and Deneb, that make up an asterism known as the "Summer Triangle". Around midnight in mid-summer, the triangle is directly overhead. Some Pacific Island cultures knew these three stars as the "Navigator's Triangle" and used the triangle to cross the trackless waters of the Pacific Ocean. So, what is an "asterism?" It is a group of stars that have a common or popular name that is not a formally-named constellation. The "Big Dipper" is an example of this. The Big Dipper is a part of Ursa Major (the Great Bear) and extends far beyond what we see as the Dipper. However, don't go looking for the Dipper in the early evening this month. From our latitude here in The Colony, Ursa Major is mostly below the horizon. Since we had two full moons in October, the November full moon is on the last day of the month, Nov. 30. This full moon has two traditional names, the Beaver Moon and the Frost Moon. I hope you took a minute last month to find Mars when it was at opposition (directly opposite the sun). It was big, bright, and red! There will be no more planetary oppositions in 2020. In fact, the next one won't be until August of next year! However, Jupiter and Saturn are still getting closer to each other. These two planets will have a conjunction (visibly near each other) on Dec. 21. They will be so close to each other they may appear as a single bright planet. More on this event next month. The Leonid Meteor Shower (known as the Leonids) will put on their annual show this month, peaking the night of Nov. 16-17. The Leonids usually produce the most meteors in the predawn hours. If you want to catch this show, don't stay up late. Get up early! The moon will have set by then, so it should be nice and dark. To find where these planets and constellations are, visit http://skymaps.com/index.html. From there you can print your own map of the sky for the month. Clear skies! november Sky november Sky 18 | THE COLONY NEWS | NOVEMBER 2020 | COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD