(Image ©Dave Morrow Photography)
This year’s November night sky brings the Beaver Moon—the fourth and final full Supermoon of 2024, as well as a great opportunity to see Jupiter through your telescope. While there is a chance you’ll see shooting stars—part of the Taurids and the Leonids, we don’t recommend bundling up for these as the bright Moon will obscure your view. Instead, we suggest looking for a couple of picturesque Moon-planet pairings. Here’s everything you need to know about sky events this month.
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Visible Planets In The November Night Sky
Slowly but surely, Venus is becoming increasingly prominent in the western evening sky. It will become a dominant object calling attention to itself right on through the upcoming winter months. On the opposite side of the sky, low in the east, Jupiter will be blazing amidst the stars of Taurus the Bull, accompanied by the orange star Aldebaran and the beautiful open star clusters of the Hyades and Pleiades. Midway between these two planets, shining with a sedate yellowish-white glow in the south will be Saturn.
During the late-evening hours, yet a fourth bright planet will make its presence felt: Mars, shining with a fiery orange hue. With each passing day, it will draw 681,675 miles closer to Earth and as a result will increase noticeably in brightness during November. Finally, there is little Mercury, the smallest and closest planet to the sun. It’s an evening object, but it’s lowness to the southwest horizon will make it a difficult object to view through much of this month.
November Night Sky Guide 2024
All times and positions are listed in Eastern time, 40 degrees north of the equator—unless otherwise specified. If you see the terms sunset, midnight, sunrise or local time, this is true no matter where you are located (no need to add or subtract for your time zone).
November 1 – New Moon
The New Moon occurs at 8:47 a.m. EDT.
November 2 – Aquarius and Saturn
Among the “watery” constellations is the Man with the Water Jar, Aquarius visible in the south-southwest sky. Aquarius does not have many bright stars so it is often difficult to find but the planet Saturn is passing through this zodiacal constellation and can help you locate it.
The rich mythology of the Water Carrier is very ancient, tracing back to the earliest civilizations in the Tigris and Euphrates valleys. The ancient Egyptians had an equally picturesque image of this constellation that they associated with the Nile’s annual flooding.
The Egyptians believed the flooding was caused by Aquarius dipping his water jar into the river to refill it. Several of Aquarius’ stars bear “lucky” names from the Arabic tradition. Sadalmelik means “luck of the king,” Sadachbia is the “luck of homes,” while Sadalsuud may be the luckiest star of all since it means, “luck of luck.”
November 3 – Daylight Saving Time Ends
For most of the United States, it is time to fall back one hour. Your clocks will change from 2:00am to 1:00am this morning. That means you get to enjoy a 25-hour day!
November 4 – Moon with Venus
About 45 minutes after sunset, look low to the southwest horizon for a thin waxing crescent Moon and hovering about four degrees above it will be Venus.
The dazzling planet Venus sets about 2 hours after the Sun on November 1 and a healthy 3 hours after the Sun on November 30. Venus will still be very low in the sky after sunset so don’t be late in looking for it.
The crescent Moon and Venus just after sunset on November 4, 2024.
Through a telescope, Venus will look egg-shaped or gibbous instead of a complete circle.. The planet is reflecting the light from the Sun and will become brighter as it gets closer to Earth in the coming months. Venus spends the month gliding eastward from the constellation Ophiuchus toward the Teapot of Sagittarius.
November 5 -12 – Taurid Meteor Shower
The Taurids, a lesser but long-lasting meteor shower, is visible from late October into the first two weeks of November. Most meteor showers are best after midnight because their radiant (apparent points of origin) are highest in the sky just before dawn.
The Taurids are an unusual case where the radiant is highest around midnight, so the shower can be observed all night. Face east after dark to locate the constellation Taurus, and radiating from there you may see about 5 to 15 meteors per hour.
This year the Moon’s phase is generally favorable for observing these meteors. On November 5, the Moon sets at around 7:20 p.m. local time, and by the morning of November 12, it stays up until about 2:30 a.m.
November 9 – First Quarter Moon
The first quarter Moon occurs at 12:55 a.m. EST.
November 10 – Saturn
That bright yellow-white “star” shining closely to the Moon’s upper right during the mid/late evening hours is Saturn. The ringed planet, situated among the dim stars of Aquarius, is easily spotted in the southern sky after nightfall.
On November 16, Saturn halts its retrograde motion and ever so slowly resumes its eastward creep with respect to the background stars. But you’ll get to know Saturn since it will be visible every night after sunset until mid-February 2025. Telescope users will find that Saturn’s rings are tilted at their widest for 2024.
November 15 – Full Beaver Moon
The Full Beaver Moon reaches peak illumination at 4:29 p.m. EST.
November 16 – Mercury and Jupiter
The planet Mercury arrives at greatest elongation, 23 degrees east of the Sun today. But it will be challenging to find this tiny planet since it will appear extremely low in the southwestern sky just as the Sun sets. Not only can trees and buildings get in your way, but the glow of the sky will make finding Mercury extremely difficult.
Meanwhile, if you look low toward the east-northeast at around 6:30 p.m., you’ll see the Moon, just past full phase, shining near a really bright “star.” That’s actually the planet Jupiter.
Jupiter and the Moon after sunset on November 16, 2024.
The big planet rises about two hours after sunset at the beginning of the month, but by November’s end it’s already glaring in the east as twilight fades. It’s quite high by mid-to-late evening all month long and getting slightly brighter as it gets closer to Earth.
Jupiter looks incredible through a telescope. You can usually see its four largest Moons lined up with the planet. And occasionally you can detect stripes on the planet and even the Great Red Spot, the largest known storm in the universe.
November 17 – Leonid Meteor Shower
Unless the Leonid meteors put on an exceptional shooting star show this year, the annual display will be ruined by the Moon. The Moon is full on November 15 and will still be so bright that it will wash out most of the meteors.
Without the Moon, you can usually observe 10 to 20 meteors per hour, but this year you can stargaze on November 17 and maybe see a few shooting stars that night.
November 20 – Moon and Mars
If you look low toward the east-northeast after 10 p.m. you’ll see the waning gibbous Moon ascending the sky and about four degrees to its upper right, you’ll see a very bright orange-yellow “star,” which in reality is the planet Mars.
Mars rises in late evening, and the Earth is catching up to it, so it’s getting closer and brighter every week; it nearly doubles in brightness during November. At the start of November, Mars appears roughly in line with the brightest stars in the constellation Gemini, Castor and Pollux, but by month’s end, will greatly outshine them.
November 22 – Last Quarter Moon
The last quarter Moon occurs at 8:28 p.m. EST.
November 27 – Moon and Spica
For the second time this year, the Moon will appear to occult (hide) the bright blue 1st-magnitude star, Spica, for most of the US and Canada. This will be an early morning event with a waning crescent Moon passing in front this star on its eastward course against the background stars.
Spica will disappear behind the bright crescent and will pop back into view from behind the unilluminated part of the Moon’s disk about an hour later.
For those living in the Eastern time zone, Spica will disappear at around 5:50 a.m. and reappear in bright twilight skies at around 6:40 a.m. For the Central time zone, the occultation will occur between 4:35 a.m. and 5:25 a.m. From the Mountain time zone, the disappearance occurs before Moonrise, with Spica’s reappearance coming at roughly 4:15 a.m., with the Moon very low near the east-southeast horizon.
Unfortunately, for those living in the Pacific time zone, the entire occultation occurs before moonrise and thus will not be visible.
