It was a Dark November Night…

And a Perfect One for Stargazing!

It’s hard to believe November is upon us already. Where I live we’ve already had snow, but interspersed with nice warm days now and then. November brings the first really cold weather for many of us in the Northern Hemisphere. Folks in the Southern Hemisphere are headed into summer, with much nicer weather.

For me, November always brings the chance to see Orion.  Of course, I have stay up pretty late to do that, since Orion’s still fairly low on the horizon much of the month at my usual 10 p.m. hour for stargazing. I always see Orion as a harbinger of winter. I just learned the other day from a friend’s Facebook post that the first sight of Orion was the occasion to do an Orion dance. I don’t know what kind of dance one should do, so I’d probably just go out, find Orion and maybe do a little impressionistic body movement. You could do Middle Eastern dance, or maybe a little tai chi, or if you’re a cosplayer, maybe a complete minuet, dressed in the appropriate court of Louis Quinze costume.  I think that, in the interests of aesthetics, however, you should probably steer clear of the Macarena.  Nobody wants to see you do THAT while stargazing. Although… it would be better than twerking. That “dance” just so last month…

But I digress. November brings us planets to look at, the Moon, Comet ISON (in the wee hours for the first three weeks of the month), and the world-famous Leonid Meteor shower. It peaks around the 18th of the month. That one is best seen in the early hours of the morning, so if you want to do a Leonid part (complete with dancing), plan to stay up really, really, really late!  And dress warmly. Bring warm beverages.

I talk about the things you can explore in the November night skies in http://astrocast.tv/our-night-sky.html” target=”_blank”>Our Night Sky an videocast on Astrocast.TV.  You watch it there, or see it here, at the bottom of this entry. Whatever you do, get out there (dress for the weather!) and get stargazing!

http://astrocast.tv/our-night-sky.html