2018 Week 47: (November 18-November 24)

This week we will have a Full Moon brightening the cool late Autumn sky.  The next day the Full Moon will be in conjunction with the bright red star in Taurus called Aldebaran.  The chart below highlights these events.

Date	Event
November 22	Full Moon
November 23	Aldebaran 1.7°S of Moon

The other morning I was walking around the house at around 7 in the morning.  I looked in the southeastern sky and noticed Venus was very bright.  Our closest planetary neighbour was in close proximity to the brightest star in Virgo--Spica.  They are less than 2° apart in the sky and would fit quite nicely in binoculars or a wide field telescope.

Venus

It is amazing that Venus is so bright.  Only 14% of the planet is currently illuminated in its waxing crescent phase.  The above image shows Venus as a waning crescent from 2016.  The planet is quite close to the Earth right now at approximately 50 million kilometers.  The closest Venus can get to us in around 38 million kilometers.

When you are up in the morning look to the southeast to see this great sight!

The great constellation Orion is now peaking above the eastern horizon early in the evening.  By 9pm you should be able to see its bright belt stars above the houses in the suburbs.

Southern Sky This Week (Left is East) 22:30

The Pleiades is in a perfect position to view with your eyes or any optical instrument.  In four weeks Comet 46P/Wirtanen will be less than 5° from this famous cluster of stars.  The comet may even reach naked eye visibility as it makes its closest approach to Earth on the 18th of December.  I am sure you will see this in news reports over the next few weeks when the media catches a hold of this fish.

As of today the comet is current at -30° declination in the constellation of Fornax with a current average estimate of 6.5 magnitude.  We will have a full write-up about this comet very soon.

There are two scheduled rocket launches happening this week.  A Falcon 9 will be taking off from Vandenburg Air Force Base in California just before Noon on Monday.  It is carrying several satellites to a polar orbit for a variety of different countries.

The next day a Vega rocket wll be taking off from French Guiana with an Earth observation satellite for Morocco.  If you would like to check out either of these launches live the information is provided in the table below.

Date	Event
November 19	Falcon 9 - Spaceflight SSO-A (11:31)
November 20	Vega - Mohammed VI-B (20:42)

These launches can be viewed from the website below.

https://spaceflightnow.com/

Stay tuned for the latest Calgary astronomy information on our Facebook Page below.

www.facebook.com/simonjastronomy