From Meteor Showers to the Skull Asteroid: Everything You Can See in the November Night Sky | The Weather Channel
Search
Advertisement

Space

Here's everything you can look up and see in the night sky during the month of November.

ByDrew MacFarlane
October 30, 2018Updated: October 30, 2018, 5:55 pm EDTPublished: October 30, 2018, 5:55 pm EDT





You blinked and October is already over. As much as you might not like packing away your Halloween costume and shelving all your scariest movies, November is here.

But it's not all bad news – November is bringing a loaded plate of things to look for in the night sky, from meteor showers to the eerie Skull Asteroid.

Here's everything you can look up and see in November:

Taurid Meteor Shower: Nov. 4-5

With an extra hour of night sky following Daylight Saving Time on Nov. 4, the fireballs in the South Taurid meteor shower might be a good way to spend that extra hour. The shower runs from Sept. 25 to Nov. 25 but is expected to peak Nov. 4 and 5, according to EarthSky. Consisting of shards of the comet Encke, the shower is more known for the brightness of its shooting stars compared to the number – about five per hour. The moon will also be in its waning crescent phase, making for some ideal viewing conditions in its near-absence.

New Moon: Nov. 7

On the evening of Nov. 7, the moon will be on the same side of the Earth as the sun, allowing for some optimal viewing of distant galaxies or to take in the stars from our own Milky Way.

Skull Asteroid: Nov. 11

Flash back to Halloween three years ago: everyone's eyes were fixed on a 2,000-foot-wide rock buzzing within a mere 300,000 miles of Earth. Although it was the distance that gave most people the worried feeling, the fact that the rock was shaped like a human skull wasn't much help, either.

Officially known as 2015 TB145 — but nicknamed the Halloween asteroid — the creepy rock is back, but it'll be a bit behind schedule and much farther away than last time. The dead comet will make its pass by Earth from about 24 million miles away, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory calculates. That's a little more comforting than last time.

Taurid Meteor Shower, Round Two: Nov. 12-13

So you missed the first glimpse at the Taurids. Not to worry – you'll get a chance at redemption on Nov. 12 and 13 when the North Taurids, a meteor shower that runs from Oct. 12 to Dec. 2, hits its peak, EarthSky reports. Like the South Taurids, the sibling shower will be about the brilliance of the fireballs and not the overall number, though the number of shooting stars per hour will be similar – about five.

Leonid Meteor Shower: Nov. 17

A moderate meteor shower, the Leonids are produced by dust streams in the trail of the comet Temple-Tuttle, which is set to return in 2031. The Leonids will be best viewed at midnight and will be a peak display of about 17 shooting stars per hour, according to In the Sky. The Leonids have been known to produce some of the most spectacular showers known to man.

Full Beaver Moon: Nov. 23

Referred to as the Beaver Moon because it coincided with the time of year when beavers were most active and traps were set by American colonists, November's full moon will crest on the morning of the 23rd, according to the Farmer's Almanac. This also means a full moon occurs on Thanksgiving night.

Loading comments...

Advertisement