November 1
The First of November
Sun Position
The Sun is in Scorpius, declining to roughly -14° declination. Northern Hemisphere days are noticeably shorter than nights; Southern Hemisphere enjoys long, warming afternoons.
Sky Highlight
The Taurid meteor shower (South Taurids branch) is active in early November, with rates of roughly 5–10 meteors per hour. Slow, bright meteors (occasionally fireballs) drift from a radiant near the Pleiades. Best after midnight from either hemisphere, though Taurids are reliably visible from both.
Deep Sky Object
M45, the Pleiades (Seven Sisters), open cluster in Taurus, about 440 light-years away. This is among the nearest star clusters to Earth, young enough that its brightest members are still hot blue-white stars, and on a clear dark night the unaided eye resolves six or seven individual stars out of the hundreds present. Well-placed for both hemispheres in the evening sky all month.
Featured Star
Mirfak (α Persei) is a yellow-white supergiant 592 light-years away, spectral class F5Ib, a star well past main-sequence life, shining at the luminous center of the Alpha Persei Moving Cluster. It marks Perseus's elbow in the sky, anchoring a scattered spray of fainter companions that share its motion through the galaxy.
Around This Date
- November 1, 1977Charles Kowal discovered Chiron, a small body orbiting between Saturn and Uranus, later reclassified as the first known centaur object.
- November 3, 1957The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2, carrying the dog Laika, the first animal to orbit Earth, though she did not survive the mission.
November opens with Perseus high and the Taurids drifting slow, fireballs that take their time.