Hampshire Astronomical Group

Astronomical Events for November 2026

Moon

Third Quarter 1st November

New Moon 9th November

First Quarter 17th November

Full Moon 24th November

3 Nov – morning – The Moon will be 2.2° southeast of Jupiter.

3 Nov – 09:00 UT – The Moon will be 1.5° south of Regulus.

20 Nov – evening – The Moon can be seen 5.4° north of Saturn.

23 Nov – A good time to view the Mare Orientale region due to lunar libration.

24 Nov – The full Moon is a perigee full Moon or supermoon as it occurs about one day ahead of lunar perigee.

28 Nov – 21:30 UT – The Moon occults M44, the Beehive Cluster.

30 Nov – 05:40 UT – The Moon will be 2.1° southwest of Jupiter, Jupiter will be 3.5° northwest of Regulus, and Mars is 2.3° northeast of Regulus.

Planets

2 Nov – morning – Regulus, Jupiter, Mars, and the crescent Moon make a line which spans 16°.

7 Nov – 06:30 UT – Venus can be seen with the 4%-lit crescent Moon 2° to the right of the planet.  Spica is 1.3° to the left of Venus.

20 Nov – Mercury reaches greatest western elongation when it will be 19.6° from the Sun.  The planet rises 2 hours before sunrise.

25 Nov – Uranus reaches opposition and can be found just to the south of the Pleiades.

Meteor Shower

12 Nov – Peak of the Northern Taurid meteor shower which has a ZHR of 5 meteors an hour.

Miscellaneous

15 Nov – 02:00 UT – Orion reaches peak altitude and can be seen due south, Mars and Jupiter will be east of the constellation and Saturn will be approaching setting to its west.

23 Nov – Asteroid 344 Desiderata can be seen tracking north of the Pleiades and Hyades as it reaches opposition.

Binocular Objects

The Heart of Cygnus – The Heart of Cygnus is the star Sadr (Gamma (γ) Cygni) which is the brightest of a heart-shaped asterism of 11 stars.  Binoculars will show a variety of colours from deep orange, through yellow and white, to blue-white.

M39 – This open cluster is 9° from Deneb (Alpha (α) Cygni) in the direction of Pi² (π²) Cygni.  10x50 binoculars will show a wedge-shaped group of stars, with 5 stars being visible in urban skies and up to 20 stars may be visible in a dark sky area.

Delta (δ) Cephei – This star is a double, with a deep yellow primary and a white secondary, and gave its name to a class of variable stars.

Herschel’s Garnet Star – Draw a line between Alderamin (Alpha (α) Cephei) and Zeta (ζ) Cephei), just south of the mid-point of the line is Herschel’s Garnet Star.

Deep Sky Objects

Caldwell 41 (Hyades) – RA 04h 26m 54s, Dec +15° 42’ 00” – an open cluster in Taurus shaped like a V.

M36 – RA 05h 36m 18s, Dec +34° 08’ 26” – An open cluster in Auriga which is about 12 arcminutes across.  A 150mm scope will show about 60 stars, with lower power revealing the stars colours.  10-15 more stars can be seen using a 250mm scope.

M37 (the Salt and Pepper Cluster) – RA 05h 52m 18s, Dec +32° 33’ 10” – an open cluster in Auriga and is brighter than M36 and M38.  The centre star is bright orange.  A 150mm scope will show this open cluster looking more like a globular cluster and shows the core as an irregular shape.

M38 – RA 05h 28m 41s, Dec +35° 51’ 17” - A cluster than can be found in Auriga’s misshapen pentagonal outline.  A 150mm scope will show several dozen stars, a 250mm scope will reveal about 150 stars.  Many of the stars appear to be star strings which gives M38 the informal name of the Starfish Cluster.

M45 (the Pleiades) – RA 03h 47m 29s, Dec +24° 06’ 18” – an open cluster in Taurus containing around 1000 young stars, with 6 individual stars being visible to the naked-eye.  A Using a 150mm scope to look at Merope (23 Tauri), it may be possible to see NGC 1435 which is where the nebulosity is most concentrated.

NGC 1514 (the Crystal Ball Nebula) – RA 04h 09m 16s, Dec +30° 36’ 33” – a planetary nebula in Taurus, and spans 2.3 x 2.0 arcminutes across.  This nebula is best seen using a 100-150mm scope at low powers.  A 250-300mm scope will reveal an unevenly bright surface.

NGC 1647 – RA 04h 45m 54s, Dec +19° 08’ 00” – An open cluster in Taurus which contains about 200 stars and can be seen using a small scope.

NGC 1893 – RA 05h 22m 44s, Dec +33° 24’ 43” – An open cluster in Auriga, with a 150mm scope showing about 30 stars and a 250mm scope revealing about 50 stars.  This particular cluster is embedded in IC 410 which is difficult to view visually, but when photographed is known as the Tadpole Nebula.

NGC 1907 – RA 05h 28m 05s, Dec +35° 19’ 32” – An open cluster in Auriga, with about 30 stars being visible in a 150mm scope.  Larger scopes will reveal about 40 stars.

NGC 1931 – RA 05h 31m 24s, Dec +34° 14’ 47” – this is a star cluster + emission and reflection nebula in Auriga.  Using medium-high power, a 150mm scope will show several stars and the nebula, but a 250mm scope will show a diffuse glow with a mag. +11.5 central star.

Moon Image Credit: Steve Broadbent
Jupiter Image Credit: NASA
Pleiades Image Credit: Tim Nelson

Announcement posted by : Website Team