| THE COLONY NEWS | NOVEMBER 2023 | 19 | THE COLONY NEWS | NOVEMBER 2023 | 19
In Memoriam
Betty Petzing
By Mike Vergara, 951-473-5806
November is a good month for sky-watching. It gets
dark early, and our southern California skies are often
clear at this time of year.
On the 2nd, Jupiter will be at opposition. This means
that it is directly opposite the sun as viewed from the
Earth. The best time for viewing a planet is when it's in
this position. Why? Because the planet is at the closest
point to Earth in its orbit, and it is fully illuminated by
the sun.
Saturn is still up there as well and is beautiful to see.
Both planets are easily visible in the early evening, as it
is fully dark by 6:30 pm. Jupiter is in the south-east, and
Saturn is to the south-south-west.
The moon will pass close by each of these planets,
too. It will be close to Saturn on the 20th, and Jupiter on
the 25th. The full moon this month is on the 27th and by
tradition was called the Full Beaver Moon because this
is the time of year when beavers begin to take shelter in
their lodges, having saved lots of food for the long winter
ahead.
This is a good month for meteors, too. There are two
minor and one major annual meteor showers happening
in November. The two minor showers both come from
the region of the Taurus constellation. These are the
Southern Taurids on the night of the 4th-5th, and the
Northern Taurids on the night of the 11th-12th. In addition
to a relatively small number of meteors, the Southern
Taurids will also have a bright third-quarter moon
affecting the viewing. Then on the night of the 17th-
18th are the Leonids, which usually have a pretty good
number of meteors.
To find where the 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
