Tony Martinez
Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on November 9th. For November, your best viewing nights will be from November 1st through November 14th.
The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on November 15th at 10 pm.
Naked Eye Sights:
As I was writing this November column in which I planned to feature meteor showers, a very special and unexpected astronomical event was occurring above the rainy skies. One of the many small comets circling the Sun is called 17P Holmes. Comet Holmes at its present location in Perseus was at magnitude 17, much too dim to be seen by most if not all amateur telescopes. Quite suddenly on October 23rd, Comet Holmes burst into brilliance. Over a period of hours, Comet Holmes became over a million times brighter! Suddenly, it looked like the constellation Perseus had a new star, at magnitude 2.2, which is the normal brightness of most of the stars you can easily see. When you look through binoculars, you can see that it is not a star, but a fuzzy ball with a brighter center, and in addition, it has a nice pale yellow color. Also, in recorded history, no comet has ever been this bright out beyond the orbit of Mars. So go outside and see a history making astronomical event.
Note: As a point of information; the 17P in front of the name means that Holmes is a (P)eriodic comet, which means that it circles the Sun in an orbit of less than 200 years. In addition, it was the 17th Periodic comet discovered (1892).
How to find Comet 17P Holmes: The comet should be visible throughout November. Look toward the East. In the early evening, you will see a bright star rising in the East, Capella. Stretch out your arm and place your hand out as if to say “stop.” Now place your thumb on Capella, move your hand so the little finger is extended straight up and slightly to the right. Your little finger should then be near a triangle of stars. The top of the triangle is a star called Mirfak, and the bottom left “star” of the triangle is Comet Holmes. On November 18th, Holmes will be almost touching the left side of Mirfak. Use binoculars or a telescope to see the fuzzy ball of Comet Holmes.
Meteor Showers:
November is a good month to look for meteors, often called shooting stars, but they are really tiny pieces of rocky metallic debris left over from the formation of our solar system. On any night you can see a few meteors streaking across the sky, but many times a year, the number of meteors increases. These events are known as meteor showers. These showers appear to come from one area of the sky, and they are named for the constellation they appear to come from. So if they seem to come from the constellation Leo, they are called the Leonids, from Gemini, the Geminids, etc.
Let me take the time to explain what causes a meteor shower. Our solar system contains thousands of objects known as comets. A comet is a ball of ice, rocks and gas, several miles across. Planets travel around the Sun in nearly circular orbits, like marbles rolling around on a CD. While comets travel around the Sun on long elliptical (oval) orbits, and have orbits on many different directions, as shown in this example;
As they travel through the inner Solar System, the Sun’s energy blows off some of the ice, rocks and gases. To use an analogy; think of a comet as a gravel truck driving down the road with small amounts of gravel falling off the back end onto the road. Once in awhile, the truck hits a bump, and a large amount of gravel falls behind it on the road. In the same way, as a comet revolves around the Sun, it leaves behind it a trail of small rocky material. This trail of rocks continues to revolve around the Sun on the same path of the comet that dropped them. Throughout the year when the Earth passes through one of these rocky comet trails, we see an excessive amount of meteors; this is known as a meteor shower. On a normal night, you may see 1 to 5 meteors per hour. During a meteor shower, you may see 25 to 100 meteors per hour. Now remember when the dump truck hit a bump and dropped a large amount of rocks? Some years we run into a larger clump of rocks in the comet’s trail, and in addition, we may hit the trail dead center instead of on its edge.
How to view a meteor shower: Do not use any telescopes or even binoculars, only your eyes. If possible, lie on your back on a lawn chair to ease any pain in your neck from looking up. Focus your view to the East, and also overhead. Final rule, the later at night you can go out, the better. The greatest numbers of meteors are usually seen between midnight and dawn.
When to view in November: We actually pass through five comet trails in November, the 5th, 9th, 12th, 14th, and the most famous and usually the best is the Leonids on the 17th-18th. The astronomers don’t predict a great year for the Leonids, but surprises do happen, so check it out.
Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): Comet Holmes is the target for this month.
Telescope Sights (60-100mm): Comet Holmes is the target for this month.
See you next month.
