Caoimhín's Content

The video accompanying this piece is in Irish, but I will provide this write up and the subtitles of the video in English as usual. Just like the previous English language piece, we are already half way through November and for that reason we will be looking at the end of November and the start of December. By the current date we are already a little after a couple of the most interesting events that happen during November. The planet Venus is visible when the Sun is setting, and will continue to be well into December. The planet Mercury has reached it’s furthest point from the Sun already, but even when Mercury was at its furthest point from the Sun, we weren’t able to see it from here in Ireland. Mercury appears to be in between Venus and the Sun from our perspective at the moment, about halfway between Venus and the Sun. However, it is still below the horizon when the sky is getting dark, for us here in Ireland at least.

Back on the 17th of November we had the of highest point of the Leonids, the peak of the Leonid meteor shower. The Leonids and a couple of the other meteor showers are already finished or finishing up by now. Thankfully, there are still a couple coming up. Pushing later in the night will bring the radiant of the Leonids into the sky, by just 11:30 this late in the month. The Taurids would be up high to the south in the constellation of Taurus the Bull. The Southern Taurids are after reaching their peak already, as have the Northern Taurids. The Leonids can produce incredibly high numbers of meteors, though is is occasional, usually we don’t get a lot of meteors from the Leonids. The peak is more usually up to maybe 20 meteors, but they still get a lot of attention. The special thing about the Leonids is the amount of the meteors that explode in the sky. These are known as bolides or fireballs, those meteors that explode while they’re falling through the sky, and we tend to get a lot of them from the Leonids. The Leonids however are past.

There are still meteor showers upcoming in November. The November Orionids are one meteor shower that is yet to peak. Most meteor showers do run over a span of time, but the peak usually produces far more meteors and can usually be considered the only important night of the shower. The 28th of November is the peak of the November Orionids, so their highest point is yet to come, but with just three meteors flying through the sky every hour, it’s not a very high peak rate. Looking to the Alpha Monocerotids, their peak is also still coming up, on the 21st of November, but this is a sort of mixed shower. There’s a chance that we’re going to see hundreds of meteors from this meteor shower but there’s a chance that we’re going to see just 5 or 6 as well. It is sometimes hard to predict for certain what sort of shower we’re going to get from the Monocerotids, and some other meteor showers as well.

Although peak is not the right word, Jupiter is reaching a similar point of prominence, the point in which Jupiter is directly on the other side of the Earth compared to the Sun. This is Jupiter at opposition. Looking at Jupiter it is still just 99.9% full right now, but if we push ahead, that will increase to 100%. This seems to be coming up on the 26th, and it will last for a while before Jupiter slowly drops back down to 99.9%. The point at which Jupiter is directly behind the Earth is very similar to when the Moon is directly behind the Earth. When the Moon right behind the Earth, that’s the night when the Moon is full, when its at it’s brightest. When the Moon is full it is with us the entire night, from sunset to sunrise. The same things occur with Jupiter when Jupiter’s at opposition, or “full”, and the other planets as well. If a planet, or the Moon, is directly on the other side of the Earth compared to the Sun, that planet, or that moon or whatever object, will be with us all night long.

In Irish, the word “réad” is used for object, and this is used to refer to almost everything in the sky in a general sense. Almost everything is an object of some sort when we are looking into outer space, looking at stars, planets, asteroids, comets, stuff like that, they are all objects. If something is flying through the sky and you don’t know what it is, it is a UFO or unidentified flying object. The word “réad” is used for object here as well when changing that to Irish, “réad eitilt neamhaithinte”.

To see more we will push out to the countryside and a little ahead to the start of December. November started on one of the cross-quarter days, usually celebrated on “Oíche Shamhna” or Halloween, the night of Samhain, rather than the first day of November itself. The 1st of November is one of the days used to break up the year, one of the cross-quarter days, occurring every six months. The quarter days are the other ones, the equinoxes and the solstices. We are coming up to the solstice, the winter solstice will be on the 21st or 22nd of December. We aren’t starting December yet, but we are going in that direction. We are going to look ahead, all the way to Christmas Day, the 25th of December. It’s not the equinox, but still, it is a famous day. As the Sun sets on the 25th of December, Venus will be nice and high in the Southwest, with Saturn further South. Uranus is still there though tough to see in the East, and Jupiter finally in the sky at sunset to the East as well. If we are looking ahead to December then we are past the point where Jupiter was directly behind the Earth. For that reason, Jupiter will be up before the Sun sets. When the sky is still bright, we can’t see it, but Jupiter is there, above the horizon before sunset after midwinter. Moving later in the night Jupiter will be with us almost the whole night, certainly for the beginning of the night. If Jupiter is up before the Sun sets, Jupiter will be down before the Sun rises in the morning. Again, just like the Moon,. If the Half Moon is up in the evening then the Half Moon won’t be there in the morning, and vice versa. pushing a little later looking at Christmas Night, at almost 9 o’clock, you may be able to see Mars and Venus at the same time, if you have nothing blocking your horizon, but it will be hard. As I said Jupiter will be setting when the Sun is coming up, Mars however should still be with us. Just ahead of the sunrise the Moon will rise, very close to the New Moon. This si finally followed by Mercury coming up in the morning.

From the countryside, at 8 o’clock in the morning Mercury, the Moon and Mars are all visible. Mercury moves very fast, so if we pull back to closer to the beginning of December, even just halfway through December Mercury is much more difficult to see. Closer to the end of the month the planet will be further from the Sun, and then it will loop back in close to the Sun as we move into January. The fortnight at the end of December, those two weeks, that is the time to look for the planet Mercury for us here in Ireland. If you are on your winter holidays at the moment, for November, if you went on holiday for Halloween perhaps, then if you are in Spain or North Africa for the end of this month, you should be able to see Mercury as the Sun is setting. However, if you are stuck here in Ireland, Mercury will be visible in the morning when we are in to December at least.

there are several meteor showers coming up for December. Just looking at the middle of the month there are several radiants, though of course they won’t all peak at the same time. I am going to put together another show talking about these showers, there’s a good chance that that show will be in English when we are into December. I will also talk about Mercury in the morning and a few of the other things that are coming up, when we get there. Regardless, there are a lot of meteor showers, the majority of them however are minor meteor showers. Thankfully, a few of them are a little bit bigger and a little bit more famous. Looking at the Geminids for example, a potential peak rate of 150 is being shown, certainly something to look in December. I always question these numbers, as they are predictions of the future. 150 is a great number and I will forward to that, but I will also be prepared for a much lower number.

That’s a brief look at a few of the things that are coming up. There will be more videos coming about next month when we are there. I hope you enjoyed reading this piece, if you did then please do like it. You can also subscribe to this website or my YouTube channel to support my creation of more content like this. Thank you for reading and I’m sure I’ll see you back here next time.