This is the time of year when the smoke of wood stoves finds us during starlit walks. Its presence made vivid by the crisp night air, it’s like an old friend reminding us that we have entered that interseason between the glory of autumn foliage and the snows of winter. And so was I reminded of this smoke-spiced time of year while out walking earlier this week, fellow skywalkers.
The Summer Triangle constellations. (Courtesy of Marc Vilain)
And what a night to be out. With the crepuscular glow of sunset still lingering on the horizon, the stars shimmered into view. If you spend time under the stars this week, you will see that summer hasn’t given up on us completely. The Summer Triangle still presides over the zenith, that threesome of warm-weather stars formed by Altair, Deneb, and Vega; for the few hours after sunset, the familiar constellations these stars anchor keep us company in the sky. We have Cygnus, the swan whose tail is Deneb; Aquila, the eagle whose eye is Altair; and the Lyre of Orpheus, of which Vega must be something like a tuning peg (don’t ask for too much literal verisimilitude from constellations).
But the glory prize of the night sky this week is the planetary and lunar alignment that greets us in the southwest skies. Reaching from the horizon well into the star field are Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter, joined closely in their alignment by Miss Luna. The accompanying sketch (below) shows them as they were on Monday, Nov. 8, evening, with the crescent moon delightfully (but temporarily) aligned with the three planets. Over the course of the week, Miss Luna advances on Saturn and Jupiter, passing just below Saturn on Wednesday and Jupiter on Thursday, then emerging on the other side of the planetary alignment in time for the weekend.
The Hindu goddess Lakshmi, by Raja Ravi Varma, 1896. (Wikimedia Commons)
You can see this alignment from anywhere with a clear sightline to the west, fellow skywalkers: the Prospect Hill overlook by Fruitlands, of course, but also from Oak Hill, in the stretch between Carlson Orchards and the Westward Orchard fields on Oak Hill Road. The planetary alignment will remain visible well into December. However, if you want to catch Miss Luna flirting with the planets as I’ve shown in the diagram, you will have to make a rendezvous with her when she reappears at the start of her next waxing phase, on December 6 or 7. By then, Venus will have closed some of the gap with Saturn, so it will all appear a bit more compressed.
The author’s sketch of the moon and planets on the night of Monday, Nov. 8
