Summer starry sky gradually recedes In November, let's take a lunar eclipse

In November, the lively summer starry sky gradually withdraws, and the autumn four sides form the protagonist of the starry sky. Of the five planets visible to the naked eye this month, Mercury and Mars are closer to the Sun and less observable. Venus travels from the constellation Ophiuchus to sagittarius, and is located in the southwest sky at sunset, with a horizon altitude of more than 17°, which is conducive to observation. Jupiter's fall was further advanced to around 23:33 p.m., and the first half of the night was visible. Saturn travels in Capricorn, turning from southeast to southwest after sunset, and the sunset time is advanced to about 22:13 at night, which is also visible in the first half of the night.

The walls of the room are empty, and the palace is built after autumn

Compared to other seasons, the autumn starry sky is slightly lonely, and one of the most worth seeing is the autumn quadrilateral. The brightest of the four stars in the autumn quadrilateral is the α andromeda in the northwestern corner, which is as bright as the North Star, and the other three are slightly darker, located in the constellation Pegasus. In China's traditional astrological system, these four stars belong to two star officials: the two stars in the west are "room" and the two stars in the east are "wall" houses. In the early days, they belonged to the same camp (i.e., the construction of the palace). Later, the wall (originally the east wall - the east wall) was separated from the camp and became a separate dormitory, and the camp room was referred to as the room.

Our ancestors cleverly blended time, people, and astrology, allowing realism and romanticism to blend perfectly in the November stars. In ancient times, from october 15 to early November of the summer calendar, at dusk, it was when the room and wall were located high in the southern sky. At this time, the agricultural work had just ended, and the labor force in various places began to be conscripted to build a palace for the king. The poem "Ding zhi fang zhong" has the phrase "ding zhi fang, written in the Chu Palace", where "ding" is the two stars of the chamber, which means that when they appear in the north and south of the middle sky after dusk, people build palaces in Chu Qiu. The ancestors also made a similar setting in the heavens, the four stars of the square barracks, imagined as four walls, they represent the palace when the emperor of heaven went out on tour; on the east and west sides of the room and the wall, there were two star officials of "Tugong" and "Tugong", who were responsible for building the palace; next to the north star of the room, there were also "leaving the palace" star officials. Heaven and earth not only have the same social order, but also the working seasons are exactly corresponding, and such an arrangement is really amazing.

Due to the effect of precession, the time for the chamber and the wall to be located in the southern middle of the day after sunset has been postponed to about mid-December in the Gregorian calendar. There is no moonlight interference in early November 2021, and we can find them in the sky due south after 8 p.m. local time.

Uranus is rising to the sun and can be seen all night

On November 5, Uranus travels to the opposite side of the Sun, i.e. to the "opposition" position, which rises just as the sun sets. At this time, Uranus is the closest to Earth, the brightest, and visible all night, which is the best time of the year to observe it.

Uranus, whose English name is Uranus, is derived from the Greek god of the sky and was the grandfather of Zeus, the king of the gods. Its brightness is almost the limit of what the naked eye can see, but the maximum apparent diameter is only about 4 arcseconds, even with high-quality binoculars or small astronomical telescopes, it is only a bluish-green blur.

Uranus has an inclination of 98 degrees from the axis of rotation to the plane of rotation, and it is "lying" in the orbit. It runs around the sun, sometimes with its poles facing us and sometimes sideways toward us. Uranus has a faint , tiny ring system , which is currently almost exactly facing Earth , making it easier to observe. However, the albedo of its aura is only about 2%, which is darker than charcoal and can only be seen with the largest telescope. In contrast, saturn's rings can have up to 70% albedo.

November 5 is the first day of the tenth lunar month, there is no moonlight interference, at sunset on the day, Uranus rises from the southeast, roughly located 13 degrees below the three bright stars in the head of Aries, we can use Stellarium software to check its specific location. In cities and suburbs, it is not difficult to find it with binoculars; in the suburbs without light pollution, we can also challenge whether we can see it directly with the naked eye.

The moon obscures Venus, with an eclipse of the moonrise

On November 19, we will usher in a partial lunar eclipse, which can be seen in eastern Asia, Oceania (except the polar west), the Pacific, North America, South America, the North Atlantic and the western South Atlantic, the polar and northern European polar and northern European oceans, and the Arctic Ocean.

Only some parts of the western part of China can not see this partial lunar eclipse, and most areas can see the "eclipse moonrise", that is, the moon obscured by the shadow of the earth rises out of the horizon. For lunar or solar eclipses, "rising with eclipses" means that the further east the observation conditions, the better. For example, in this partial lunar eclipse, in the area of "moonrise with eclipse", the farther east it is, the greater the degree of obscuration by the shadow of the earth, and the better the ornamentation. Conversely, in the area of "food falling", the further west the observation conditions are better.

This partial eclipse is very close to a whole eclipse, with a fraction (roughly understood as the extent to which the moon is obscured) reaching 0.978. At 15:18 Beijing time on November 19, the lunar surface began to eclipse, and by 17:03 the occlusion reached its maximum (called "eclipse"), and at 18:47 the lunar surface was re-rounded, lasting a total of 3 and a half hours. Observed in the Beijing area, the moon will rise at 16:59, located 25° north-east. The entire lunar surface is almost a dark red, showing only a hint of bright white in the lower right corner, which is very worth seeing. If you have binoculars or small astronomical telescopes, the effect is even better.

There will also be a lunar occultation of Venus on November 8, in which the Moon passes in front of Venus and obscures it, but happens to occur during the day and is difficult to see. That night, we could admire the Venus conjunction at a very close angle. That day is the fourth day of the tenth month of the lunar calendar, the twilight season, a bend of the moth eyebrow moon and the dazzling Venus appear in the southwest sky at the same time, which can be described as "the moon is long and geng", which is worth seeing.

(Chen Jian, associate researcher of Beijing Planetarium)

Source: Science and Technology Daily