The Sky This Week - Thursday November 14 to Thursday November 21

The Last Quarter Moon is Wednesday November 20.  Venus climbs higher in the evening twilight closing in on Jupiter. Jupiter is easily visible low in the western evening skies above Venus. Saturn is above Jupiter, higher in the western evening skies.  Asteroid Vesta visible in binoculars. Leonid meteor shower 18th.

The Last Quarter Moon is Wednesday November 20.

Sky at 21:01 ACDST on Saturday 16 November (60 minutes after sunset) looking west as seen from Adelaide. Venus, Jupiter and Saturn form a line above the western horizon.

The left upper insert shows the telescopic view of Jupiter at this time. The lower right is that of Saturn at the same magnification and the lower left is Venus.

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia 60 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen.

The North-east horizon as seen in Adelaide at 21:37 pm ACDST (90 minutes after sunset) showing the location of Vesta (click to embiggen) on Saturday 16 November. The inset is the binocular view of Vesta and the two prominent guide stars.

Vesta is currently easy to find, near the two brightish stars that form the foreleg of Taurus the bull. Vesta is brightest on the 12th, but with the Full Moon nearby will be difficult to observe, even in binoculars. You may need to block the Moon out with a building to have a chance to see Vesta at this time.

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia 90 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen. A spotter guide with printable charts is here.

Morning sky at 5:34 ACDST facing east as seen from Adelaide on Saturday 16 November 30 minutes before sunrise.

Mars is low above the horizon just below Spica. You may need binoculars to see Mars.

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time. (30 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen).

Morning sky facing north-east from Adelaide at 4:00 am ACDST on 18 November, the Leonid radiant is indicated with a star burst. Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time.

For this years Leonids the Last Quarter Moon will result in poor viewing conditions. As for the recent past years this year there are low rates, you will be unlikely to see anything substantial (although there may be short bursts of higher rates). The best time to observe in Australia is the morning of the 18th between 3 and 4 am (daylight saving time). The Radiant (where the meteors appear to come from) is in the Sickle of Leo. Orion and the Hyades will be visible. So it will be a quite nice morning, even if there are only a few meteors.

Venus is higher above the western horizon in the late evening twilight. Venus is now readily seen up to 90 minutes after sunset.Venus comes closer to Jupiter over the week.

Mercury is lost in the twilight.

Jupiter  is still worth observing in the early evening. Jupiter is easily visible in the western sky  and is located beside the distinctive constellation of Scorpius and above Venus. It sets around 10:30 local time and is a good telescope target in the early evening. Venus comes closer to Jupiter over the week.

Mars is just visible in the morning twilight near the bright star Spica.

Saturn  is to the east of Jupiter and near the “handle” of the “teapot of Sagittarius. It is best for telescopic viewing from just around astronomical twilight local time until around 10:30 pm.

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

Star Map via Virtual sky. Use your mouse to scroll around and press 8 when your pointer is in the map to set to current time.

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/