The November sky it will bring with it several noteworthy celestial events. We leave on November 5 with the “super beaver moon”the brightest of the yearwhich will be followed by the perihelion of comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) which is still putting on a show in the Italian skies heading west, two/three hours after sunset. The month will continue with meteor showers Taurids (of the North and the South) and of Leonidsthe conjunctions between the Moon and the gas giants of the Solar System, ending with an “unusual” vision of Saturn, which will appear from Earth with its rings seen sideways.
The brightest “supermoon” of the year
The month of November will see the second of three consecutive “supermoons”. In fact, the Moon will reach its own full stage at 2.19pm on November 5thwhile at 11.27pm it will reach the perigeeclosest approach to Earth, a 356,833 km from our planet. The combination of these two events will give rise to a “supermoon”a full Moon brighter and larger than the municipality due to the shorter distance between our satellite and the Earth. This month, in particular, the “super beaver moon”named following Native American tradition, will be the largest and brightest of the year, appearing about 7.9% larger and 16% brighter of a normal full Moon.
Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) at perihelion
The comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) is continuing to put on a show in the Italian skies, observable for approximately two/three hours after sunset in a west/north-west direction. Past the perigee on October 21stthe comet is progressively moving away from our planet, but approaching the Sun, with a total magnitude estimated at around 4 as we write the article, therefore requiring very dark skies to be seen with the naked eye. However, it still appears easily identifiable with binocularsor even better with a small telescope. THE’November 8the comet will reach the minimum distance from the Sunapproximately 75 million km from our star and 150 from our planet. On that day, the comet will always be observable in the same celestial direction, but for a shorter time, about one and a half to two hours after sunset. By the end of the month, the comet will no longer be visible from our latitudes as it is angularly too close to the Sun.
The Taurids and Leonids meteor showers are arriving
November reserves the presence of well three meteor showers. We leave on November 4-5 with the peak of the meteor shower Southern Tauridsactive between September 20 and November 20, with a comet rate of about 5-10 per hour. The swarm comes from the celestial quadrant of the constellation Taurus, which rises shortly after 7pm in the east. This implies that the maximum visibility of the swarm will be a few hours after 7pm, when the constellation Taurus will be highest in the sky. Unfortunately, the Moon will be almost full, making the sky very bright and thus reducing the spectacle of the meteor shower.
About a week later it’s the turn of the Northern Tauridswhich as you can imagine, also comes from the direction of the constellation of Taurus, but further north than the other swarm, which is instead centered not far from the star Aldebaran. The Northern Taurids have the peak between November 11th and 12th and are active between October 20th and December 10th. The expected rate is similar to that of the Southern Taurids and this time the Moon will only be 60% illuminated, improving the visibility of the event.
The third and final swarm is that of Leonids. Active between November 6 and 30, the swarm will have the peak between November 17th and 18th with an expected rate of meteors of around 10-15 per hour. The swarm comes from the direction of the constellation Leo, which on the days of the peak will rise in an east/northeast direction around midnight, thus ensuring that the maximum visibility of the swarm occurs late at night. The Moon will be practically absent, so the Leonids will certainly be the most spectacular swarm of the month.
Saturn’s rings will become ‘invisible’
The November 23, 2025 there will be an astronomical event not to be missed that has the planet as its protagonist Saturn. That day, in fact, its iconic rings they will appear cut away seen from our planet. Due to the tilt of Saturn’s and Earth’s axis relative to the ecliptic, the tilt of Saturn’s rings varies throughout the year. The maximum in 2025 was reached around June, while the minimum will be on November 23rdwhen the rings will be itilted just 0.4º from our line of sight. Saturn will therefore appear, only if observed with a telescopeas without its ring system, a very unusual sight.
Conjunctions between the Moon and planets
We close November’s astronomical events with a series of conjunctions (visible to the naked eye) whose protagonist is the Moon and the two gas giants of the Solar System. The November 2the Moon and Saturn they will be protagonists of a close encounter that will have its closest approach to 9:31 am Italian time at 3°14′. We will therefore have to wait several hours to be able to observe the two objects from our latitudes, which means that by the time they arise, they will now be separated by about 10°, a less spectacular view (observable with the naked eye), but certainly not to be missed. We then continue November 10th with the close encounter between the Moon and Jupiter. This time too, unfortunately, the maximum approach (4°00′) will be during the day, at 8:56so we will have to wait until around 10pm to see the two stars rise on the eastern horizon, separated at this point by around 15 degrees. Closing the close encounters will be again Saturn on November 29th. This time both the maximum approach (minimum angular distance) and the conjunction (minimum distance on the same right ascension) will occur when the Sun has already set in Italy. The closest approach will be at 5.42pm at 3°19′while the conjunction at 8.08pm at 3°42′. The Moon will be crescent, 66% illuminated and Saturn will be with its rings almost seen edge-on. Although the show, in a southeasterly direction, will be visible to the naked eye, the use of binoculars or a small telescope will help make the celestial encounter more exciting.
