Life & Family | Astronomy

November is quite a significant month in space history. In a small book published in November 1923, Hermann Oberth, a Transylvanian scientist, became the first writer to use the term “Space Station” to describe a wheel-like facility that could serve as a base from which to launch astronauts to the Moon and Mars. He is regarded, along with the Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and the American Robert Goddard, as one of the three founding fathers of modern rocketry. Oberth’s work foreshadowed Wernher von Braun’s vision of a spinning wheel structure in space upon which the space station in Kubrick’s 1968 classic film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, was modeled.

In November of 1984, aboard the shuttle Columbia, astronaut Joseph Allen performed the first salvage operation in space when he retrieved the $35 million Palapa B-2 communications satellite. Fourteen years later, on November 20, 1998, the first module of the International Space Station was launched. Finally, Season 3 of the series The Universe begins on November 11 at 9pm on the History Channel with “Deep Space Disasters”—a show that could prove to be quite interesting.

The Moon will be full on the 2nd of November and new on the 16th. The Moon and Mars can be seen together on the 8th, while Jupiter and Mars will align in the early evening on the 23rd. In late November, Mars will be amongst the five brightest objects in the sky. Venus will be a bright morning planet, visible in the Eastern skies just before sunrise. It may be interesting to note that, on November 18, the Sun will rise at 6:40am at the Custer Observatory in Southold, but at 6:47am in Manhattan (the difference in time results from the distance between the two locations and the rotation of the Earth).

The Leonid meteor shower, first recorded in 1833 when millions of meteors streaked across the European skies, falls on the 17th and 18th of November and should yield an average of 40 meteors every hour this year. The Leonid shower peaks approximately every 33 years, with the last peak taking place in 2001. Some Leonids can be seen anytime between the 13th and the 20th of the month. Look towards Leo, the radiant (apparent point of origin), after midnight. The Moon will be out of the way so this year’s show is likely to be superb.

If you have access to a telescope, you can glimpse the asteroid Vesta just before sunrise on November 24th. Several comets also appear in the skies this November: 22P/Kopff, 81P/Wild 2 and 118P/Shoemaker-Levy 4. These are all fairly dim comets that require a sizeable telescope, or even sensitive imaging gear, to be seen. Of course, you are welcome to view these objects live at the Custer Institute any Saturday evening.