The brightest planets in November's night sky: How to see them (and when)

Two evening planets — Mercury and Mars — are well-nigh impossible to see this month, unless you live south of 30 degrees north latitude. Even from there, however, you'll need binoculars to carefully scan along the southwest horizon within a half-hour after sunset. Both will be gone by midmonth, with Mercury reappearing by month's end, low in the east-southeast at the break of dawn.

In contrast, Saturn is a far easier planet to see in the evening sky; favorably positioned well up in the southern skies after nightfall. A far-brighter Jupiter makes its appearance in the east-northeast several hours later and by dawn is literally soaring high above our heads. Only one planet rivals Jupiter in brilliance and that is Venus, but she will become increasingly difficult to see during November, rising very near to the time of sunrise and staying very low to the eastern horizon.

In our schedule, remember that when measuring the angular separation between two celestial objects, your clenched fist held at arm's length measures roughly 10 degrees. Here, we present a schedule below which provides some of the best planet viewing times, as well as directing you as to where to look to see them.

Mercury and Mars

Mercury and Mars are two planets that are in conjunction during the early evening hours. Both are too close to the sun for worthwhile observing from mid-northern latitudes.

But those in the southern states should use binoculars about 25 minutes after sunset to search for +1.2 magnitude Mercury passing just over one degree to the south of the +1.4-magnitude red planet. Both will be literally hugging the southwest horizon. Mercury will be at inferior conjunction on Nov. 29 and, passing to the northwest of the sun, quickly enters the morning sky. By Nov. 29, Mercury is 17 degrees west of the sun and in an excellent observing position, rising in the east-southeast 1.5 hours before sunup.

Venus

Venus rises about 1.5 hours before sunup early in the month. On the morning of Nov. 3, look for it just south of due east and about 45 minutes later, take note of the blue 1st-magnitude gem Spica sparkling about 3.5° to its right (about 1/85 as bright as Venus).

In the following weeks, Venus will sink toward the eastern horizon, leaving Spica behind to the west. By the second week of November, Venus is getting more troublesome to locate in the dawn sky, and at month's end, it's rising less than an hour before sunrise and becomes difficult to find low in bright twilight. About a half hour before sunrise on the morning of Nov. 18, look low toward the east-southeast horizon for a hairline (3% illuminated) waning crescent moon and hovering about 8 degrees to its lower left will be Venus. Binoculars will be very beneficial to help pick them out against the bright twilight background.

Jupiter

Jupiter is in Gemini, the Twins, and rises about 10:40 p.m. daylight saving time on Nov. 1 and about 7:40 p.m. standard time on Nov. 30. The giant planet brightens from magnitude -2.3 to -2.5 this month and halts direct motion (eastward against the starry background) on Nov.11, so it remains about 7 degrees from the star Pollux all month.

Jupiter will reach its highest point in the sky around dawn, when, from mid-northern latitudes, it will appear about 20 degrees from the point directly overhead, known as the zenith. During the overnight hours of Nov. 9-10, a waning gibbous moon will pass almost midway between Jupiter and Pollux.

Saturn

Saturn is a spectacle at nightfall, but not to the naked eye. It glows at a magnitude +0.9 in the northeastern corner of Aquarius below the noose of faint stars formed by the Circlet of Pisces. The planet burns only a little brighter than the star Fomalhaut, twinkling far to its lower right.

Saturn's spectacle appears through the eyepiece of telescopes magnifying over 30-power. The famous ring system, whose inclination toward Earth has been slowly diminishing since mid-summer, narrows from 0.6 degrees on Nov. 1 to a mere 0.4 degrees at month's end. As such, they now appear most unusual; just a thin line of light bisecting Saturn's disk. On Nov. 1, as night falls, Saturn is readily identified as a bright "star" sitting about 5 degrees to the lower left of the waxing gibbous moon in the southeast sky. On Nov. 29, for the second time this month, Saturn has an encounter with the moon. You'll find it this evening hovering about 5 degrees to the moon's lower right.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmers' Almanac and other publications. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Editor's Note: If you get a great photo of any of the planets and would like to share it with Space.com's readers, send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.