In the Nub News monthly update on the skies, Beckington Astronomical Society writes:

So here we are, another month into 2020 and whilst a dark outlook is bad for the country it is good news for us who enjoy the night sky! With the clocks having gone back the evenings now become prime time for observing our neighbours in the solar system, the constellations and some deep sky objects.

The darker evenings make this a great time of year for getting children interested in astronomy, provided of course that the great British weather allows us outside for any length of time. We talked about Mars last month and it is now a feature in the early evening sky making it a good starting point for new astronomers. Look for the red disk in the south east. Our society Chairman, Steve Hill took this photo of Mars only last week showing plenty of detail on the "red planet".

If the weather is bad then take advantage of National Astronomy Week between November 14th and 22nd. www.astronomyweek.org.uk provides a series of events including live, online streams from observatories around the country. Check the "Events" tab on the website for details.

The Moon provides us with a number of interesting features during November.

On November 8th, in the early hours of the morning look for the "Lunar 2". This is a shadow formed by sunlight on the rims of craters Deluc and Deluc D that appears as a a thin number 2. This is known as a "clair-obscur effect", an illusion caused by the the way that sunlight falls on the craters and other features on the surface of the moon.

On the night of 8/9th November there are two crosses to observe. The "Tycho Cross" should be visible near moonrise at 22.45, close to the western rim of the crater called, not surprisingly, Tycho. Later that night, around 01.00 the "Curtiss Cross" is formed northeast of Fra Mauro.

A free pdf map of the moon can be downloaded by clicking HERE: the sky and telescope site

Tycho is shown close to the bottom of the map, in the centre. Far Mauro was the landing site for Apollo 14 (and the planned site for the ill fated Apollo 13) and is to be found below Copernicus and above the Mare Nubium.

At 20.40 on 26th November you should be able to detect "Cassini's Moon Maiden" with a telescope. The Bay of Rainbows sits on the northwest shore of the Mare Imbrium and where the Jura Mountains come to an end an effect that looks like a girl with flowing hair will appear.

Moving further away from Earth the night sky is full of planets. We've talked about Mars, Jupiter and Saturn in past months and all continue to be clearly visible to the naked eye. Again these provide great starting points for new observers. We can add Uranus to that list this month.

Just before midnight on November 1st Uranus will appear as a small greenish blue disc in the constellation of Aries. Look south at an altitude of 51 degrees and you should be able to see the planet through binoculars. You'll find it approximately half way between the stars Menkar in Cetus and Sheratan in Aries. Don't forget that Uranus is approximately 2.8 billion kilometres away! Uranus will appear as a magnitude +5.7 "star". Stars differ in how bright we see them. Hipparchus, a Greek Astronomer (second century B.C.) produced the 1st known star map and numbered the stars from 1 (the brightest) to 6 (those he could only just see). In more modern times we are able to measure how bright we see the stars and a brightness number or Magnitude ascribed to the star was formalised. A magnitude 1 star is 100 X brighter than a Magnitude 6 star. This seem a bit back to front but you get used to it! Some stars were found to be brighter than 1 so they had to go to '0' or even negative values. The difference between each level is about 2.5 times, so a magnitude 1 is 2.5 times brighter than a magnitude 2. The Sun is Magnitude -27.

Lastly, in the absence of fireworks on November 5th look out for the night sky's own light shows. The following meteor showers will be visible this month:

Leonides - 17/11 in Leo

Northern Taurids - Throughout the month, in Taurus

Southern Taurids - 1/11 to 20/11, again in Taurus.

You can check the Royal Observatory's website, www.rmg.co.uk for a calendar of meteor showers.

Enjoy your observing, wrap up warm and find a comfortable chair from which to see the great sights in the night sky.

www.BeckingtonAS.org