We only have one evening planet in our late autumn skies this year, but the good news is that Jupiter, the king of the planets, is easy to find.  Just go out at one hour after sunset, face where the Sun disappeared, turn ninety degrees to your left and find the sky’s brightest ‘star’ high above the southern horizon.  That’s not a star, it’s Jupiter.

November’s full moon is Tuesday, so by the end of the week there’ll be no moon to wash out the stars and given what happens to sunrise and sunset times in November, you’ll have a little more evening darkness to enjoy your stargazing.  

We start the month with sunset at 5:54 p.m. and by the 11th of the month, it will reach its earliest setting time of the entire year: 5:51 p.m. or nine minutes before six.

Strangely enough, the time of sunset will ‘stick’ there for the rest of the month until the very last day.  On 30 November, the Sun will set at 5:52 p.m. and will continue to set later each night until July. The Sun is also rising later.  Sunrise was at 6:15 a.m. on the first and the Sun will rise at 6:24 a.m. on the 30th.  The Sun will continue to rise later until the beginning of February.  Just one of those little quirks of living in the tropics!

Since there will be no moon in the early evening sky later in the week, it’s a fine time to go stargazing.  Start your explorations by facing west where the Sun disappeared at around 7:00.  Swing 90º to your left and you'll be facing south.  To your right, you’ll see the teapot-shaped asterism of Sagittarius the Archer balanced on its spout in the southwestern sky. 

Then look for a large equilateral triangle of bright stars in front of you.  The lower left one will be the brightest and close to the southeastern horizon at 7:00 this week.  That’s Achernar, the sky's ninth brightest jewel.  Achernar is too far south to see from the mainland US.  Achernar's name comes from the Arabic phrase Al Ahir al Nahr, which means "The End of the River."  Achernar is the end star of one of the sky's largest constellations, Eridanus the River.  For us here on Guam, the river's end rises first.  We'll have to wait another couple of months to see the river's headwaters at the feet of Orion the Hunter.

The top star of the large triangle is Fomalhaut, or as it is sometimes pronounced Foam a Low.  The name Fomalhaut is also Arabic and it is from the phrase Fum al Hut, which means "Mouth of the Fish".  Fomalhaut is the brightest star in the constellation Piscis Austrinus the Southern Fish.  I guess it's pretty easy to figure out which end of the fish is represented by Fomalhaut, but it's pretty difficult to find a fish outline in the stars of Piscis Austrinus.  Although you may never have heard of Fomalhaut, it's the sky's 18th brightest star.

The last star of the triangle, to the west is the dimmest star of the trio.  Its name is Pavo the Peacock Star and it's the brightest star in the constellation Pavo the Peacock.  You may notice that all three stars are flashing brilliant colors.  All bright stars twinkle colors here on Guam when they're close to the horizon, and Pavo never gets very far away from the ground.  I suspect it was named somewhere near our latitude. The sky is full of wonder, enjoy it tonight!
  

Would you like to be on the Planetarium e-mail list and receive a monthly reminder of the Planetarium shows and occasional notices of cool things in the sky?  Just send an e-mail to stars@guam.net requesting that you be added and I'll put you on the list!

Don't forget that you can hear this information on Guam's public radio station KPRG, 89.3 on your radio dial.  The program is called Tropical Skies and it airs twice on Monday, during the noon hour at 12:25 and at 6:01 in the evening.  Support your public radio station

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