The Night Sky November 2019
The Milky Way.
You could be mistaken into thinking that the Milky Way was just a long stretch of very hazy evening clouds. But when it is a clear night it is absolutely unmistakable. This month it wraps over the sky from east to west right overhead with the very faint smudge of the Andromeda Galaxy directly overhead. From Embsay, facing east, it seems to rise from the direction of Bolton Abbey with the familiar hour-glass figure of Orion to the right.
Looking over to the west you will see Cygnus (the Swan) superimposed on top of the Milky Way before it sinks below the horizon.
Unbelievably, it was Greek philosophers who hypothesised that the Milky Way may be made up of distant stars - but this was not proved until nearly 2000 years later when a telescope was used to study its composition. From our location at this time of year the centre of our galaxy is just below the horizon, looking towards the west. At its centre is a black hole named Sagittarius A . Recently, a pair of vast bubbles hundreds of light years across have been detected. These are speculated to have been formed by massive levels of energy bursts near the black hole. New research has also discovered an event called ‘Seyfert flares’, which blast out of cones of radiation through our galaxy and originate from a black hole.
Something not to see, directly!
This month sees a special event on 11th November. Before I describe it, there is a health warning! DO NOT OBSERVE THE SUN DIRECTLY, it will cause permanent damage to your eyes.
Between 12.35 pm and 4.30 pm (when the sun sets) the planet Mercury will pass in front of the Sun. As Mercury moves across the surface of the Sun the very small black disc of the planet will be silhouetted against the colossal brightness of our Sun. When this happens it demonstrates just how small the planet is and also how immensely big the Sun is in comparison. This is called a transit and will not happen again until 2032. Records show that the first observed transit was 7th November 1631 and much later Captain Cook saw a transit and used it to determine his latitude during his first voyage on the Endeavour in the Pacific. He will have had special solar filters to observe it safety. The only other safe way to observe for us is to project the image through a telescope or binoculars on to card.
Even then, the temptation to line up the telescope with your eye MUST be resisted. If you remember playing with a magnifying glass when you were younger and observed how a focused light beam starts a fire, don’t let this happen in the back of your eye. If you want to see it my recommendation is to see it online. I am sure the transit will be uploaded on to the internet and maybe images will be published in newspapers or web sites if you want to see it. If we have a clear day I’ll have a go and put any images on my site (see link below).
Planets and Moons.
Looking south west on 28th November just before 5pm, you will see the crescent moon low on the horizon. On the left of it is Venus, on the right Jupiter. These are the two brightest planets and this trio of objects should look spectacular! Our single moon seems to be rather lonely compared to the 79 moons of Jupiter. Saturn, however, holds the current record at 82, 20 new ones have just been discovered!
Full Moon 12th November
New Moon 26th November
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