The Sky This Week - Thursday November 15 to Thursday November 22

The First Quarter Quarter Moon is Friday, November 16.  This is the last week to see four bright unaided eye planets in the early evening sky. Mercury climbs higher and is close to the star Antares all this week. Saturn and Mars are visible in the evening skies. Venus returns to the morning sky. Leonid meteor shower peaks Sunday 18th. Comet 46P visible in binoculars.

The First Quarter Quarter Moon is Friday, November 16.  The Moon is at apogee, when it is furthest to Earth, on the 15th.

Morning twilight sky on Thursday, November 15 looking east as seen from Adelaide at 5:34 ACDST (30 minutes before sunrise). Venus and the bright that Spica  are close together above the horizon. The inset shows the telescopic view of Venus at this time.

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time (30 minutes before sunrise)

Evening twilight sky on Thursday, November 15 looking west as seen from Adelaide at 20:28 ACDST (30 minutes after sunset). Jupiter is just above the horizon. Mercury and  the bright star Antares are close together.

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes after sunset)
 

Evening sky on Friday, November 16 as seen looking west from Adelaide at 21:38 ACDST (90 minutes after sunset). Mercury is just on the horizon with Saturn above and Mars is close to the first quarter Moon.

Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen).

Evening sky on Friday, November 16 as seen looking easst from Adelaide at 21:38 ACDST (90 minutes after sunset).  The location of comet 46 is show with a cross. Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time (and most of the Southern Hemisphere 90 minutes after sunset)). Click to embiggen.

Comet 46P is rapidly brighetning and is rougly magniturde 6.5 now, radily seen as a fuzzy blob in binoculars. I may become bright enough to (just) see with the unaided eye in December.

Morning sky looking north-east as seen from Adelaide at 4:38 am local daylight saving time on Sunday November 18 and Monday November 19 (90 minutes before sunrise) showing Leo, with the Leonid Meteor shower radiant indicated with a starburst. 

Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time (90 minutes before sunrise). Click to embiggen.
 
On the morning of Sunday November 18 the Leonid Meteor shower peaks (from the point of view of Australians, that’s 17 November UT), with the best time being between 3-4 am.
Despite the peaks, very few meteors will be visible (maybe one every 5-10 minutes).

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what’s up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.

 Venus is has returned to the morning skies and is close to the bright star Spica low above the eastern horizon on the 15th.

Mercury is high in the early evening skies and is above the bright star Antares.

Jupiter  is low above the western horizon in the early twilight. By the end of the week it will no longer be visible.

Mars is in Capricornius and is readily seen in the evening. Mars is now rapidly dimming and shrinking. In a telescope you can see a few features as the huge dust storm has abated, the polar cap is obvious in even small telescopes. It is close to the First Quarter Moon on the 16th

Saturn is in the north-western evening sky in the early evening and is setting around 11 pm. It is still within binocular range of the Trifid and Lagoon nebulae but is slowly moving towards the globular cluster M22. However, its closeness to the hrrizon may wash these clusters and nebula out.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what’s up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/