Generally we get notes from folks in Australia and New Zealand – who’re throughout the Worldwide Date Line – that they need we’d present our charts a day earlier. This chart is for you!
Via Guy Ottewell’s blog. Re-printed with permission. Edits by EarthSky.
There’ll be a reasonably gathering of three objects low within the west after sundown on November 15, 2023. However the meetup is extra prone to be seen from Earth’s Southern Hemisphere. Because the younger moon – a waxing crescent within the night sky – climbs away from the sun, it’ll cross near Mercury and the purple star Antares.
Why Southern Hemisphere? Don’t all of us see the identical sky? We do, to a big extent. However our orientation – from our varied elements of Earth – provides us a various perspective on the sky. And – for all of us across the globe proper now – the moon, Antares and Mercury at the moment are low within the night sky, within the west solely shortly after sundown. From the Southern Hemisphere now, the ecliptic (pathway of the sun, moon and planets) makes a fairly steep angle with the western night horizon, inserting the trio above the sundown. However the moon, Mercury and Antares are all on part of the ecliptic that slopes south from the place the sun now could be. And this reality depresses the view nonetheless extra for Northern Hemisphere observers.
So our scene this time is drawn for a location that approximates Australia and New Zealand.
The 2024 lunar calendars are here! Best Christmas gifts in the universe! Check ’em out here.
The second when this trio of vibrant our bodies is tightest – becoming inside a circle of diameter simply over 4 degrees – is at 21 UTC on November 14. However they’re then nonetheless so low within the western sky, solely about 17 levels from the sun, that the next night in all probability provides a greater likelihood of recognizing them.
What’s extra, on November 15, the crescent of the moon might be barely thicker and simpler to see. Good luck recognizing this gorgeous sky scene.
Backside line: A good grouping of the waxing crescent moon, planet Mercury and purple star Antares seems on this chart exhibiting the trio as seen from Australia and New Zealand on the night of November 15, 2023. Make sure to look as quickly as potential after sundown!
