The Night Sky This Month

Northern HemisphereIan Morison tells us what we can see in the Northern Hemisphere night sky during November 2018.The PlanetsJupiter - Jupiter is now moving towards its superior conjunction behind the Sun on November 26th and will not be visible this month. Saturn - Saturn will be visible in the southwest at an elevation of ~11 degrees after sunset at the beginning of November but disappears into the Sun's glare by the end of the month. Its disk has an angular size of 15.7 arc seconds falling to 15.2 during the month whilst its brightness increases slightly from +0.5 to +0.6 magnitudes as the month progresses. The rings were at their widest last year but are still, at 24 degrees to the line of sight, well open and spanning ~2.5 times the size of Saturn's globe. Saturn is now moving westwards over the 'teapot' of Sagittarius to the left of M8, the Lagoon Nebula, and M20, the Trifid Nebula. Sadly, atmospheric dispersion will greatly hinder our view. Mercury - Mercury reaches its greatest elongation east from th