I must admit, when I loaded the APOD image for 1 November, I was astonished, I've never heard of 'the modern constellation Frustriaus' but luckily they 'fessed up in the blurb: 'Frustriaus, the frustrated astrophotographer'. The image does indeed resemble the gorgeous Veil Nebula even though it was just a smoke-and-light show here on Earth.

Comet ISON brightened from +8 to +5.5 by 16 November, bringing it across the threshold of naked-eye visibility.
Comet ISON's tail now trails over eight million km behind its body. That's more than 22 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon!
As its perihelion (closest encounter with the Sun) is on Thanksgiving Day in the US (28 Nov), there's still time to talk about it before my Post deadline of 17 Nov. All being well when Comet ISON has gone around the Sun it will be a spectacular sight in December!

• 28 Nov: Comet ISON reaches perihelion
• 29 Nov: The Moon and Spica (alpha Virginis) are within one degree
December:
• 01: The Moon passes 1.3° south of Saturn
• 03: New Moon
• 05: The Moon passes 8° north of Venus
• 06: Venus at its brightest: −4.9 magnitude
• 08: The Moon passes 6° north of Neptune
• 11: The Moon passes 3° north of Uranus
• 13/14: Geminids meteor shower peak
• 17: Full Moon - Cold Moon, Long Nights Moon, or the Moon before Yule
• 19: The Moon passes 5° south of Jupiter
• 20: (pre-dawn) Comet ISON passes M13 in Hercules
• 21: Winter solstice (Northern Hemisphere)/Summer solstice (Southern Hemisphere)
• 22: Ursids meteor shower peak
• 26: The Moon passes 1.1° north of Spica
• 28: The Moon passes within a degree of Saturn

• 
  Chat about your celestial observances at the H2G2 Astronomy Society. Comment on anything in this edition of Babe Among the Stars by starting a new conversation below.
  

Babe Among the Stars Archive

Galaxy Babe

25.11.13 Front Page

Back Issue Page