Although Mars made its closest approach to the Earth on the night of October 29, it will still shine brightly in the evening sky throughout the month of November. In fact, it will appear in the evening sky through the early summer, but it will gradually grow fainter each night until it's totally lost in the glare of sunset next August.
If you haven't looked for it yet, though, this is a great time to do so because it is very easy to catch. Go out shortly after sunset. If you look to the southwest you'll see brilliant Venus, shining brighter than anything else in the sky except for the Moon. Then turn yourself around and look toward the east to find the next-brightest object, Mars. Mars is known as the "red planet" but it appears more of a faint orange color.
Also keep an eye on the Moon. As the Moon orbits the Earth, its position in the sky changes, as does its phase. On the night of November 14th, a nearly-full Moon appears right next to Mars in the sky. Watch in the days leading up to the 14th as the Moon approaches and eventually passes by Mars.
Mars is currently so close to us because Earth is passing Mars in its orbit - like a race car on an inside track passing a slower moving car on an outer track. Not only is Mars looking bright in our skies, but it's also spending the months of October and November moving backwards in the sky, as seen from our point of view. Usually planets move from west to east against the background stars, but as we pass the slower-moving Mars, it appears to move east to west! If you're persistent and patient, you can verify this for yourself by comparing Mars' position every night to a background object in the sky. A good reference point is the Pleiades star cluster near Taurus the Bull.
Around the first week in December, Mars will slow down, eventually pausing on the 9th. Then Mars will resume its normal west to east motion across the sky. This strange behavior is called retrograde motion. All planets appear to do this, but Mars' loops are the most noticeable. Still, it takes careful observation over many nights to notice the pattern. If you want to try, it will help to take notes. We'll even let you draw on your star chart!
Space is, of course, mostly empty space. It also looks like there's a vast empty space near the bottom of this month's star chart. In the southwest, there's just one star, a very lonely-looking Fomalhaut.
(We can just hear you trying to pronounce that. Imagine shaking up a can of soda and than opening it. What's it going to do? Foam a lot.)
Anyway, there really are stars in that direction of the sky. To make our star chart simple to use, we've left out most of the faint ones. And, as random chance has it, there aren't very many bright stars in the sky low in the south during autumn. No matter - there's still a lot to look for overhead. Watch for the Summer Triangle and Pegasus the Horse high up as the sky darkens, or stay out a little late and find Taurus the Bull and Orion the Hunter rising in the east.
It's that time of year when people start making their list and checking it twice. It's also the time of year when some companies start promising you the stars. They take advantage of your desire to give that special someone a truly unique gift.
For some amount of hard-earned money - more than $50 the last time we checked, they will "name" a star anything you choose and send you a registration certificate. Unfortunately, many purchasers get the impression that their star is now "officially" called Fido or Grandma Fahbeetz. The companies say that their naming is only done as an amusement, but this is often found in small print at the bottom of the page.
Most of the brightest stars we see in the sky were given their names hundreds or thousands of years ago. Many more stars, the fainter ones we can see and millions more that we cannot, do not have names and are commonly referred to, by both amateur and professional astronomers, by their catalog or coordinate designations.
Frequently the stars that are "named" by these companies are not even visible to the unaided eye and require a fairly large telescope to be seen at all. A young lady recently brought in the certificate for a star that had been "named" in her honor by an academic mentor. Not only was the star too faint to be seen with the unaided eye, but it is located in the Southern Hemisphere and is never visible from Tennessee.
Not only is "naming" a star in this way equivalent to buying a pet rock, but the money does not benefit science or education. It's perfectly okay to buy or receive one of these gifts so long as you understand what you are getting.
If you want to give someone the ultimate gift, give them the Sun, Moon, and stars in the form of a planisphere, a subscription to Astronomy or Sky and Telescope magazine, or a visit to the planetarium followed by a night out at the next public star party.
