November Stargazing

Stargazing Summary

The bright constellations of winter creep into prime viewing time during the longer, cooler nights of November. Orion rises in mid-evening early in the month, but by early evening at month’s end. The brilliant ring of stars known as the Winter Circle loops around Betelgeuse, the orange star that marks Orion’s shoulder, later in the evening. The loop includes the eye of Taurus, the bull; the “twins” of Gemini; and Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky.

More stargazing information: http://stardate.org/nightsky

Radio Program Highlights

Hear StarDate every day on more than 360 radio stations nationwide or subscribe to our podcast: http://stardate.org/feeds/podcast.xml

November 1-7: Encore performance. Five years after it gave a comet a big whack, a spacecraft will fly past another comet this week. It's a non-contact event, though — the craft will just take a peek as it zips past.

November 8-14: Starstuff. We'll look into stars this week — inside their sometimes watery cocoons, beneath their jittery surfaces, and deep into their hearts. Join us for the stars, inside and out, plus an encounter with a giant planet.

November 15-21: Cosmic debris. The Leonid meteor shower is at its best this week — it's a "rain" of debris comet. We'll have details. And we'll also talk about some bigger debris: asteroids.

November 22-28: Failed stars. There's a "missing link" between planets and stars — brown dwarfs. Billions of them may populate the galaxy, but they're so cool and faint that only a few have been seen. And they're not even brown.

November 29-30: Morning lineup. The crescent Moon slides past three bright lights in the dawn sky this week — the star Spica and the planets Saturn and Venus. We'll have all the details about the Moon's beautiful morning encounters.

November Program Schedule: http://stardate.org/radio/calendars

Find an Affiliate: http://stardate.org/radio/affiliates.php

This Month In StarDate Magazine

In the November/December issue, look back on the astronomy research carried out over three decades by the space shuttle program as it draws to a close. Comet and meteor expert Gary Kronk returns to discuss the popular hysteria surrounding the appearance of comets in past centuries.

Subscribe online: http://stardate.org/magazine

News From The Observatory

Multi-University Project to Study 'Dark Energy' Receives $8 Million from National Science Foundation.

A project to discover the nature of dark energy, a mysterious force causing the expansion of the universe to speed up, has received an $8 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The funds will be split among The University of Texas at Austin ($3.6 million), Texas A&M University ($3.9 million) and Penn State University ($.5 million), to support their respective roles in the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment, or HETDEX. The project will be carried out at The University of Texas at Austin’s McDonald Observatory in west Texas.

Read more: http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/news/releases/2010/1020.html

University of Texas Students, Telescopes Help Discover Planets Around Elderly Binary Star

An international consortium of astronomers, including undergraduate and graduate students at The University of Texas at Austin, have discovered a planetary system?consisting of at least two massive Jupiter-like planets orbiting the extremely close binary star system NN Serpentis. The team used a wide variety of observations taken over two decades from many telescopes, including two at The University of Texas at Austin’s McDonald Observatory in West Texas. The results are published online in the current edition of the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Read more: http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/news/releases/2010/1021.html

Give A Gift For A Good Cause

As you make out shopping lists for loved ones and friends, consider giving a membership in the Friends of McDonald Observatory. Members get a year’s subscription to StarDate Magazine, inside information about the Observatory, complimentary passes to use at the visitors center in West Texas, and more. And both you and your friend can revel in knowing that your gift will help science education for teachers and students in the U.S.

Join Now: http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/support/friends