Frank Sanders, Peak to Peak.  This month’s night-sky centerpiece will be a total lunar eclipse in the wee hours of November 8.  The moon, low in the west, will begin to darken at 2:15 a.m. in its upper-left quadrant as the earth’s shadow begins to move across it. At 4 a.m. the eclipse will be total. By 6 a.m. the moon will be clear again, just before it sets.

Even when the moon is entirely within earth’s shadow, the lunar disc does not vanish as we might expect. It shows, instead, a dim orange glow. This is because although the sun is fully behind the earth, some of its rays refract (bend) through the earth’s atmosphere, in the same way as at sunset. If you watched the eclipse from the moon, you would see a spectacular 360-degree sunset, running entirely around earth’s rim. Short-wavelength blue and green are atmospherically scattered (meaning lost), with only long-wavelength orange and red penetrating through. Earth’s ring-around sunset eerily illuminates the moon’s surface and then reflects backward toward us, making the moon look like a celestial jack-o-lantern.

Here’s what else is in store for November skies:

The sun continues rapidly southward, in Libra through November before entering Scorpius at the end of the month. Nights lengthen, with 14 hours of darkness and 10 hours of daylight at mid-month.

The moon’s dates are: First Quarter Nov. 1; Full (Beaver Moon) Nov. 8; Third Quarter Nov. 16; New Nov. 23; First Quarter (again) Nov. 30.

Standard Time begins on Nov. 6; we gain time as we move our clocks backward one hour at 2 a.m.

October Meteor Showers: The North Taurid shower (from comet Encke) peaks November 11-12, but the gibbous moon may wash it out. The Leonid shower (from comet Tempel-Tuttle), one of the year’s best, peaks November 16-18. Stretch out in a lawn chair with a warm drink and warm clothing to see it.

Best Sky Viewing Nights (Minimal Moon): November 16-30.

Sunset (Mid-Month): Our Milky Way home-galaxy glistens from southwest to northeast. Reddish Fomalhaut rises in the southeast. The Pleiades rise just leftward of east while Capella rises in the northeast. M31, the Andromeda Galaxy (and most-distant object visible to the naked eye at 2.5 million light years) is high in the northeast; it presents a nice view in binoculars. Deneb (the Swan’s tail) is directly overhead, with Vega a bit westward and Altair to southward. Arcturus sets in the west.

Midnight (Mid-Month): The Gemini twins Castor (above) and Pollux (below) are high in the east. Below them and to the right is Procyon. Stunning Orion is high in the southeast, above Sirius. M42, the Great Nebula that births stars in Orion’s sword, is visible to the naked eye; it presents a terrific view in binoculars and low-power telescopes. Andromeda is high in the northwest. Brilliant Capella is nearly overhead; Cassiopeia (a warped “W”) is high in the northwest.

Sunrise (Mid-Month): Spica is low in the southeast; Arcturus is high in the east; Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) is high overhead. Capella is high in the northwest as Orion sets in the west.

Mercury is lost in the sun, transitioning from morning to evening sky at mid-month. 

Venus is in the evening sky but is lost in the sun’s glare until the end of the month.

Mars rises in the east, in Taurus, at 10 PM at the beginning of the month. Mars-rise comes earlier every night, breaking the eastern horizon at 5 PM by the end of the month. Our distance from Mars is rapidly closing, making it brighter to the eye and bigger in telescopes as November progresses. Closest approach, and best Mars viewing for two years, will be December 8.

Jupiter is still nearly opposite the sun, bright and low in the southeast in Pisces at sunset at the beginning of the month. It gradually moves rightward (toward the south and then the west) through the month. Its distance is increasing, but with its moons it still looks nice in telescopes through November.

Saturn is low in the south, in Capricornus, in the early evening sky as November begins. It transitions into the southwestern evening sky as the month progresses. With its increasing distance and its low elevation, Saturn’s telescopic view is less than spectacular.

Notable Space Missions and Launches: Artemis I, an uncrewed moon-orbiting mission that will shake out the new Saturn V-class Space Launch System (SLS) booster and Lockheed-Martin deep-space Orion crew capsule, opens its launch window on November 14. The six-week mission will orbit the moon with three instrumented mannequins and return to earth. It will culminate with a high-speed atmospheric reentry using the world’s largest composite heat shield and then an ocean recovery.

Frank Sanders is a spectrum scientist with the U.S. Dept. of Commerce in Boulder. He takes astronomy-related inquiries at backyardastronomy1@gmail.com.