“The Sky This Week” appears every Tuesday. It is written by Ian Clarke, Director of the Hatter Planetarium at Gettysburg College. The planetarium offers regular educational presentations about the stars and the skies; there’s something for early elementary through adults. Field trip requests are welcome. NOTE: field trip request form for Fall 2022 is now live, and the schedule of free public shows has been posted. The next public shows are Sunday afternoon, November 13; see links above for details.
I hope you got to see the lunar eclipse early Tuesday morning. If you got a good picture, especially a local one, tag us at gettysburgplanetarium on Instagram or send by email to iclarke@gettysburg.edu We will display some in an upcoming show.
The moon has just passed through the full phase (it’s always full during a lunar eclipse) and will be rising at 5:08 p.m. on Tuesday and about 40 minutes later each night. But even a bright moon will not stop you from seeing the brilliant planet Mars. If you haven’t been paying attention to Mars this fall, now is a good time to start. Look east around 8:00 p.m. or later for the red planet, which will be brighter than any star. The star Aldebaran, to the upper right of Mars, is also reddish, but it’s several times fainter than Mars. The waning gibbous moon will be near Mars on November 10 and November 11 (see illustration). On December 7, Mars is at opposition, its closest point to earth for this cycle. Watch it for the next few weeks and see if you can tell it’s getting brighter.
Ian Clarke is the director of the Hatter Planetarium at Gettysburg College. In addition he has taught introductory astronomy labs and first-year writing there for over 30 years (not necessarily all at the same time). He was educated at Biglerville High School, the University of Virginia, and the University of Iowa. He lives in Gettysburg.