This week, Mahon About Town introduces a new monthly feature - “The Nantucket Sky“, generously provided at the beginning of each month by the Maria Mitchell Observatory, 4 Vestal Street. As it turns out, there’s exciting news over there behind the telescope, the sudden and astronimically unexpected brightening of Comet Holmes, now visible to the naked eye. Saw it myself the other night. Thank you to Executive Director Janet E. Schulte for proposing this idea, and to Astronomer Vladimir Strelnitski for the report.
The Nantucket Sky in November 2007
Times given follow Daylight Savings time after 2 a.m. on November 4th.
The Sun (for the middle of the month, Nov 15)
Rises at 6:28 a.m.
Sets at 4:21 p.m.
The Moon
Last Quarter: November 1, 5:18 pm
New Moon: November 8, 6:03 pm
First Quarter: November 17, 5:33 pm
Full Moon: November 24, 9:30 am
Last Quarter: December 1, 7:44 am
The moon occults the bright star Regulus (in Leo) on November 3 (by 9 am); watch it approaching Regulus in the night of Nov 2/3.
Planets
Venus: very bright, high in the East, before sunrise.
Mercury: much lower than Venus in the East, before sunrise; best view around Nov 8.
Mars: visible all night, rises early in the evening and shines till sunrise, very high
in the Southern sky.
Jupiter: sets very early in the evening, not a good object for observations at this time.
Saturn: is the second brightest object in the morning sky (brightest is Venus).
Meteor Showers
Taurids: The first week of November (weak shower, about 7 meteors per hour)
Leonids: Nov 17-18 peak (weak shower, about 10 meteors per hour)
Comet Holmes
On October 24th, a faint periodic comet, Comet Holmes, suddenly brightened by a factor of one million - a very rare event. Not previously visible to the naked eye, Holmes can now be seen with no equipment in the constellation Perseus, and is expected to be bright for a few weeks. Map.
The Maria Mitchell Observatory will open for 4 special nights, November 7 to 10, from 8 to 9:30 p.m., weather permitting, for observations of the comet with a telescope and binoculars. Here are a few photographs of Comet Holmes taken soon after its explosion by Maria Mitchell Association astronomers Peter Armstrong and Gary Walker.
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