November Skies Offer Much to Be Thankful For

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As 2022 is nearly complete, we look to the skies of November for some amazing events to rally around!

November is the month which sees the skies open up their full beauty with cool and clear nights and shorter days. Just the thing that many fans of this column and others look for!

First we would like to wish you the best for a great healthy and happy Thanksgiving season!

We begin our celestial journey with the magic of the Moon.

This month we have a real special event for all of you to view…the second total lunar eclipse of 2022, as long as you are reading this and located in the continental USA, Hawaii and parts of Alaska.

More on that in juts a while…..

The Moon begins its November calendar journey as a first quarter Moon. You will see this in the S at sunset and one of the best times to view the Moon with shadow relief. From here, the Moon then glides past Jupiter on the 4th, as a gibbous Moon. From here the big event of the month…a total lunar eclipse on the morning of November 8th. Election Day for the USA. This appears to be the first Election Day with a total lunar eclipse….how interesting!

This lunar eclipse as mentioned before is the second of its kind in 2022. The last eclipse occurred back on May 15th of this year.

For many in the eastern portion of the USA, the eclipse will occur at best just before sunrise. For the western half of the USA, during the early morning hours of the 8th.

Here are some of the details on this interesting eclipse:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_2022_lunar_eclipse

First of all; remember that much of the USA goes off DST at 2 a.m. on the morning of Sunday, November 6th.

Here are times of this eclipse:

Partial phases begin: 4:09 a.m. EST / 1:09 a.m. PST

Totality begins: 5:16 a.m. EST / 2:16 a.m. PST

Maximum eclipse: 5:59 a.m. EST / 2:59 a.m. PST Totality lasts 84 minutes

Totality ends: 6:41 a.m. EST / 3:41 a.m. PST

Partial Phases end: 7:49 a.m. EST / 4:49 a.m. PST

The western regions of the USA are favored for the full eclipse! This is a special eclipse in that the Moon will ride high in the sky for most of the eclipse as this is known as the Full Beaver Moon.

More on this eclipse and how best to view it:

https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/total-lunar-eclipse-nov8-2022/

When will another total lunar eclipse occur on November 8th?

https://earthsky.org/human-world/election-day-total-lunar-eclipse-nov8-2022/

From here, the Moon will move on to last quarter on the 16th and then on to another New Moon on the 30th.

Pay close attention to a close pass of the Moon and Mars on the 11th as the Moon will be 2 degrees from the Moon on the 11th.

Even more amazing; will be the planet Uranus being only 0.7 degrees from the eclipsed Moon on the 8th. In some locations the Moon will eclipse (occult) Uranus:

https://in-the-sky.org/news.php?id=20221108_16_100

Planets:

In November we get to view the planet Saturn, high in the S at sunset and visible to the naked eye:

Finder charts:

https://theskylive.com/saturn-info

Jupiter remains a bright object in the E at sunset.

Finder charts:

https://theskylive.com/jupiter-info

Mars gets closer to Earth and brighter, easy to see in the NE sky around 10PM.

Finder charts:

https://theskylive.com/mars-info

One last important event on the November calendar is the annual Leonid meteor shower.