Skywatch Line for Wednesday and Thursday, November 12 and 13, 2025, written by Alan French
This is Dudley Observatory’s Skywatch Line for Wednesday and Thursday, November 12 and 13, 2025, written by Alan French.
The Sun rises at 6:44 A.M. on Wednesday and sets at 4:30 P.M. On Thursday it rises at 6:45 A.M. and sets at 4:34 P.M. This Thursday has lost 16 minutes, 20 seconds of daylight compared to last Thursday.
The Moon was at last quarter early Wednesday morning and is headed for new. On Wednesday night the Moon rises just after midnight, at 12:02 A.M. Thursday, in the east-northeast. At 5:45 A.M., and hour before sunrise on Thursday, the Moon will high toward the south-southeast. The visible face will be 37% in sunlight and the Moon will be 53 degrees
above the horizon. The Moon will be in Leo, the Lion, and the backwards question-mark outlining Leo’s head will be above the Moon.
The terminator, the division between the sunlit portion of the Moon and darkness. It is now the line of sunset marching across the visible face of the Moon as it moves toward new. The new Moon is early next Wednesday morning.
Thursday evening is also dark and moonless, with the Moon rising more than an hour after midnight. At 5:45 A.M. Friday morning the Moon, now 28% in sunlight, will be 44 degrees above the southeastern horizon.
Saturn continues to be south and highest earlier each evening. On Wednesday it transits at 8:13 P.M., 43 degrees above the horizon. By Thursday it will be due south at 8:09.
Jupiter rises at 8:47 P.M. toward the northeast on Wednesday and about 4 minutes earlier on Thursday. It does not transit until after 4 A.M. the next morning but is 23 degrees above the eastern horizon by 11 P.M. It is nicely aligned with Pollux and Castor, the two luminaries of Gemini, to its upper left. Pollux, the closest of the pair, is 7 degrees away. Procyon, the eighth brightest star in the night sky, is 16 degrees to Jupiter’s lower right.
There is a high and interesting pass of the International Space Station on Thursday night. The space station will move into the Earth’s shadow and fade from view when high in the sky. Look for the ISS moving directly up from the horizon toward the southwest at 6:24 P.M. By 6:25 P.M. it will be moving through Aquile, the Eagle, passing close to its brightest star, Altair, at 6:26:40 (HH:MM:SS). By 6:27 the ISS will be passing by Cygnus, the Swan. As it passes to outstretched wing of the Swan, it will move into the Earth’s shadow and fade from view.