Ps. 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. I hope you were able to get out and see some Orionid meteors last month. I joined a group on Friday night, Oct. 21st with hopes of seeing a few. The sky was a clear blue all day long so I was getting more and more excited as sunset approached that we would have an excellent night for viewing. Sadly, however, it turned out that I was being set up. An hour or so before sunset, I noticed a few wispy clouds on the northwestern horizon. To my dismay, instead of fading away as the sun set like good little clouds, these grew larger and thicker and wider, the closer the Sun got to the horizon. By the time it began to get dark there were only a few breaks here and there. Rats! Nevertheless, I continued setting up my telescope, hoping to at least catch a glimpse of Saturn though one of the holes before it set and I started up my computer to give a talk on meteors in general and the Orionid meteor shower in particular. The talk was well received, and although it was getting pretty dark by now, the clouds stubbornly hung around though the holes between them seemed to be getting a little larger. Eventually, the clouds did mostly clear out – shortly after we all decided to pack up our scopes and gear and call it a night, of course. There had been a number of oh’s and ah’s indicating some had spied a few of the elusive meteors and I was glad for them. I saw a couple as well, one of which flashed by as I was pointing out the star Altair to a family of three and since we were all looking at the same spot, they all got to see it too. We did get to see Saturn eventually, some there saw it for the first time and were thrilled. All in all, it turned out to be a pretty good night and who knows? Maybe next year will be better. At least it was not one of those once in a lifetime events that seem to happen so often with this hobby. Speaking of Saturn, when we viewed it on October 21st it was getting quite low so we were viewing it through a lot of Earth’s atmosphere. That made it look a bit redder than usual and because of all the unstable air near the horizon it was hard to get a sharp focus. If you want to view Saturn one more time before it goes behind the Sun you better try to get out early this month. By the end of November, Saturn will set just 40 minutes or so after the Sun making it almost impossible to see through the sunset haze. On the other hand, Venus will be a fun and interesting evening planet to enjoy this month either with or without a telescope. As the month begins, Venus will be visible for a couple hours before it sets around 8:00 P.M. It will be a very bright -4.1 magnitude and will easily be the first ‘star’ visible after sunset. The Sun will set at about 6:05 P.M. on November 1st, by the way. If you can view Venus through a telescope, you will be treated to a nice 14” (“ means arc seconds not inches to those who may not be familiar with astronomical jargon) diameter, gibbous phased ‘Goddess of Love“. Venus will grow to about 17” (17 arc seconds, remember) by the end of the month. To the unaided eye it will appear brighter and set later. Many think Venus is a UFO that follows them as they drive along, but don’t be fooled, Venus is definitely a planet, not a UFO. A very slender crescent Moon will join Venus in the sky on November 2nd forming a pretty right triangle with Saturn almost directly below the Moon and Venus to the left. Mars is hanging out in the November sky. It is so far away that it will not show much in a telescope and only shines at about + 0.4 to +0.6 all month. Mars resides in the constellation Sagittarius as November begins but moves into Capricornus later in the month. This year, the Leonid meteor shower which peaks before dawn on the 17th is predicted to be very weak. Unfortunately, the gibbous Moon will still be in the sky making it too light to see all but the brightest meteors. November is often cloudy and cold but occasionally it can have amazingly clear nights so keep your eye to the skies and even if it looks bad at sunset like it did for us when we went to observe the Orionids, be sure to give the skies another peek a couple hours after sunset – you never know! Clear Skies!