The Sky This Week - Thursday November 29 to Thursday December 6

The Last Quarter Moon is Friday, November 31.  Saturn and Mars are visible low in the evening skies. Venus is bright in the morning sky and visited by the Moon on December 4. Comet 46P visible in binoculars. Variable star Mira peaks in brightness.

The Last Quarter Moon is Friday, November 31.

Morning twilight sky on Tuesday, December 4 looking east as seen from Adelaide at 4:50 ACDST (60 minutes before sunrise). Venus and the crescent Moon 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 (60 minutes before sunrise)

Evening sky on Saturday, December 1 as seen looking west from Adelaide at 21:19 ACDST (60 minutes after sunset). Saturn is just on the horizon with  Mars above. The inset shows the telescopic view of Mars at this time.

Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen).

Evening sky on Saturday, December 1 as seen looking east from Adelaide at 21:57 ACDST (90 minutes after sunset).  The location of comet 46P and the variable star Mira is shown. 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 brightening and is roughly magnitude 5.5 now, readily seen as a fuzzy blob in binoculars. It may become bright enough to (just) see with the unaided eye in late December. More details on how to see it, along with charts suitable for printing, are here.

 Mira (omicron ceti), a star in the constellation of Cetus the whale, is a  red giant that pulsates over a period of about 331 days and changes brightness from below naked eye visibility to a peak of round magnitude 2 (roughly as bright as gamma Crucis in the Southern Cross) in around 330 days. Mira will peak magnitude later this week, and may stay bright the rest of this month. Following a line drawn between Sirus and Rigel will bring you to Mira.

 Venus has returned to the morning skies and is close to the crescent Moon on December 4..

Mercury  is lost in the twilight .

Jupiter  is lost in the twilight and will return to the morning sky mid December.

Mars is in Capricornius and is readily seen in the evening. Mars is now rapidly dimming and shrinking. When Sirius rises Mars is no longer the brightest object in the night sky aside from the Moon. In a telescope you may see a few features but viewing will be difficult. This week the “gibbous” shape of Mars will be obvious.

Saturn is low in the north-western evening sky in the early evening and is setting around 10:15 pm. Its closeness to the horizon means it is no longer a good telescopic target.

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/