Adrian Dening's Stars Over Somerset

Thursday, 7 November 2024 17:00

Monday 11th to Sunday 17th November 2024

The evening of Monday 11th sees the peak of the Northern Taurids meteor shower. At 11pm, the radiant point (where the shooting stars appear to originate from) will be located towards the south east, just below the Pleiades open cluster of stars. A little below and to the left of the radiant point you will find the bright star Aldebaran and planet Jupiter. Below them, the constellation of Orion will be easy to spot.

If you look towards the south west at 11pm the following evening, Tuesday 12th, a 79%-lit waxing gibbous Moon will be an easy find. Below and to the right of the Moon, Saturn will be about to set below the horizon. Halfway between the two, telescope or binocular users should be able to spot a magnitude +7.7 planet Neptune. Immediately beside Neptune is a star HIP117614 with about the same brightness and the pair could be confused for a double star system.

The HIP number refers to the Hipparcos Catalogue that was the result of the European Space Agency's Hipparcos mission in the early 1990s. The Hipparcos satellite made high-precision measurements of almost 120,000 stars during its four-year life.

The evening of Friday 15th sees a Full Moon. By 7pm, the Moon will have risen nicely to the east, with the Pleiades to the left of it and further left, Jupiter will just be poking its head above the horizon. This Full Moon is known as a Supermoon because it occurs near perigee, when the Moon is closest to Earth during its orbit around us. At this time, the Moon appears 14% larger and 30% brighter than when it is furthest away from us - a point called apogee. An easy way to remember which is which is to think that at apogee, something is "apologising" for being further away!