Click on any planet below to go straight to its section.
The table below shows key data for the planets this month, including rise, transit and set times, as well as magnitude, apparent size and position data (right ascension and declination).
Events that occur when the sun is below the horizon are shown with a black background and white text. All other events happen when the sun is in the sky and other for not visible for observation.
We’ve got all of the outer planets looking good this November, while the inner planets, Venus and Mercury, are not visible at all because they have both just passed behind the sun.
Mars is large, bright and properly visible in evening skies this November as it is just days away from its opposition in early December. Jupiter and Saturn have both recently passed their closest approaches to Earth and still look wonderfully large and bright in the early evening.
Finally, completing the set, Uranus and Neptune are visible in the evening this month too, which adds a nice little challenge to collect the set.
All of the images below can be opened full screen in a new tab by clicking on them
Mercury is only a week away from passing behind the sun and rises alongside it this morning. We can’t observe it.
Mercury passes behind the sun (superior conjunction) on 08 November. It spends the whole month so close to our star that we won’t be able to observe it.
This is the view just after 6pm. It is only 12 days since venus passed behind the sun and is too close to it to be observed.
Venus passed behind the sun on 23 October and spends the month of November too close to our star to be observed.
Mars is moving to be a viewable evening object now. This is the scene at 11pm with Mars 27° above the east horizon.
As November comes to an end, Mars is only days away from its closest approach to our planet in two years. That means we’re set for stunning views of the Red Planet throughout November.
Another positive consequence of a planet reaching opposition is that it is in the sky all night long. For a few months now, only those of us willing to get up early have been able to spy Mars but, now, it is firmly moving into evening viewing, especially as the clocks fall back an hour.
In the second half of November, Mars is high above the eastern horizon by ten o’clock, midway between horizon and zenith. At this point, its disc is over 17 arcseconds wide and it’s shining at magnitude -1.8, making it unmistakably bright this month. There are rarely better times to observe Mars than right now.
This is the view at 10pm and Jupiter is midway between the south horizon and zenith. The planet is still almost 50 arcseconds wide.
We see the largest planet in the solar system noticeably shrink this month, but it will still be the largest planet for us to look at by 30 November, when its disc will be 43 arcseconds wide.
This November is a fantastic time for viewing Jupiter because it is high over the southern horizon in the early evening, which also makes it a great time to introduce children to the joys of astronomy before bed time!
For all your viewing needs, there is a full guide to observing the planet included with the Virtual Astronomy Club. Click this link for all the details of what to look for this month while the planet is bright, large, and visible all night.
This view shows the sky at 8pm. The ringed planet is 34° above the southern horizon, shining at magnitude 0.7.
This is the last really good month to see Saturn as it moves gradually closer to the sun, by December it will begin colliding with dusk.
The disc width and brightness barely change over the course of September and peak viewing, when the planet crosses the southern horizon, is before 11pm by the end of the month.
We’ll see the disc shrink marginally from 17.2 to 16.4 arcseconds across and dim slightly from magnitude 0.7 to 0.8. All of us planet lovers should be taking the chance this month to spy the ringed planet this November.
Both of the two most distant planets offer good viewing this month, with each being high above the horizon on the early evening.
Use the table below to see when each of the planets is observable for each day this month. Click on it for full screen.
A planet is classed as observable when it is more than 10° above the horizon and the sky is dark enough for it to be observed.
Planet ephemeris tables produced with the kind permission of Dominic Ford. Sky images are courtesy of SkySafari Pro 6.