November 7
The Hero's Elbow Returns
Sun Position
The Sun is in Scorpius near -18° declination. Northern Hemisphere darkness is now well ahead of daylight; Southern Hemisphere afternoons approach their longest.
Sky Highlight
The Taurid meteor shower (both branches combined) is near its active peak. Fireballs are the shower's signature, slow enough to track across several degrees of sky, sometimes leaving brief glowing trains. The radiant is high by late evening from northern latitudes; comfortably placed from the Southern Hemisphere too.
Deep Sky Object
M76, the Little Dumbbell Nebula, planetary nebula in Perseus, about 2,500 light-years away. It's one of the faintest Messier objects, but its elongated, two-lobed shell makes it distinctive once found. A small telescope will show the core; aperture reveals the fainter outer wings. Best from northern latitudes.
Featured Star
Mirfak (α Persei) is a yellow-white supergiant 592 light-years away, spectral class F5Ib, intrinsically one of the more luminous stars visible to the unaided eye, embedded in the Alpha Persei Moving Cluster, whose member stars all share a common origin. From a dark site, even the surrounding cluster is faintly resolved to the naked eye.
Around This Date
- November 7, 1631Pierre Gassendi made the first recorded observation of a transit of Mercury across the Sun, confirming Kepler's prediction.
- November 11, 1572Tycho Brahe made his earliest surviving careful measurements of the new star (Tycho's Supernova) in Cassiopeia, recording its position relative to nearby stars.
Mirfak holds court over its cluster like a bright civic light over a neighborhood, not the grandest star, but the one everything else orients around.