Sky Events

November 2024

November 4: Conjunction of the Moon and Venus, with an angular separation of 3°06′

November 9: First Quarter Moon

November 10: Conjunction of the Moon and Saturn, with an angular separation of 5’18”

November 11: Lunar occultation of Neptune

November 15: Full Moon

November 16: Mercury at greatest eastern elongation

November 16: Uranus at opposition

November 17: The Leonid meteor shower reaches its peak activity of about 15 meteors per hour.

November 17: Conjunction of the Moon and Jupiter, with an angular separation of 5°38′

November 17: The Pleiades star cluster in Taurus is well-placed for observation.

November 20: Conjunction of the Moon and Mars, with an angular separation of 2°26′

November 22: Third Quarter Moon

November 27: The Hyades star cluster in Taurus is well-placed for observation

Mercury: Evening planet, reaches greatest eastern elongation on November 15.

Venus: Evening planet, improving slowly. Best at end of month.

Mars: Well-placed planet for observing this month

Jupiter: Approaching opposition and well presented in Taurus

Saturn: Well-presented evening planet in Aquarius

December 1: New Moon

December 4: Conjunction of the Moon and Venus, with an angular separation of 2°15′

December 7: Jupiter at opposition

December 8: First Quarter Moon, with a conjunction with Saturn

December 14: The Geminid meteor shower reaches its peak activity of up to 120 meteors per hour.

December 14: Conjunction of the Moon and Jupiter, with an angular separation of 5°28′

December 14: The Orion Nebula is well-placed for observation.

December 15: Full Moon

December 18: Conjunction of the Moon and Mars, with an angular separation of 54′

December 21: Winter Solstice

December 22: Third Quarter Moon

December 22: The Ursid meteor shower reaches its peak activity at up to 10 meteors per hour.

December 25: Mercury at its greatest western elongation

December 29: The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros is well-placed for observation.

Mercury: Inferior conjunction on December 6. Excellent morning planet at the end of December.

Venus: Excellent position in the evening sky, setting over four hours after sunset by the end of December.

Mars: Excellent planet approaching opposition next month.

Jupiter: Reaches opposition on December 7. Excellent position all month!

Saturn: Well-placed evening planet in early December.