Skywatch Line for Wednesday and Thursday, November 5 and 6, 2025, written by Alan French

This is Dudley Observatory’s Skywatch Line for Wednesday and Thursday, November 5 and 6, 2025, written by Alan French.

The Sun rises at 6:35 A.M. on Wednesday and sets at 4:42 P.M. On Thursday it rises at 6:36 A.M. and sets at 4:41 P.M. This Thursday has lost 17 minutes, and 39 seconds of daylight compared to last Thursday.

The Moon was at first quarter last Wednesday and will reach full at 8:19 A.M. Wednesday. Although it will look quite full when it rises Wednesday night, you can catch it closer to full before dawn Wednesday. Between 4 and 5 A.M. it will be lovely sight against dark skies. By 6 P.M. morning twilight will add to the scene and the bright Moon will be 6 ½ degrees above the west northwestern horizon. The Moon will set at 6:46 A.M.

This full Moon is being billed as a “supermoon,” since it occurs near lunar perigee, the Moon’s closest approach to our Earth. Our closest natural celestial neighbor will appear about 14% larger and 30% brighter than a full Moon at apogee, the Moon’s farthest distance from Earth.

The Moon will be at perigee at 5:30 P.M. Wednesday. Although the rising Moon Wednesday night will be farther from full, it will be slightly closer than this morning’s Moon. Moonrise is at 4:28 P.M. and it will appear a little east of northeast. By 5:30 P.M., the time of perigee, it will be 9 degrees above the east-northeast horizon.

The official time of full Moon is when the Moon is exactly 180 degrees opposite the Sun in ecliptic longitude. At 8:30 A.M. Wednesday the Sun was at ecliptic longitude 223 degrees and the Moon at 43 degrees. Ecliptic longitude and latitude are like those used to map Earth, except in the sky and the line of zero ecliptic latitude is the imaginary plane of the Earth’s orbit.

With the earlier darkness, courtesy of our switch to Eastern Standard Time, Saturn is well placed earlier on our clocks, due south and highest at 8:41 P.M. on Wednesday and 8:37 on Thursday. At its highest it is now 43 degrees above the horizon but is still above 41 degrees altitude an hour on either side of its highest point.

From Earth, Saturn’s rings now appear tipped just over ½ degree, so they look very thin. Although the seeing was unsteady, they were visible in a 6-inch Newtonian reflector on Sunday night, looking like a narrow line of light. If you have a spotting scope or an astronomical telescope magnifying 30 to 60 power, make a point of viewing Saturn. There are claims that the rings can disappear when edge on, but it has been nearly 30 years since skywatchers had a good chance to look for themselves. What can you see – of not? The rings will not be as close to edge as they are through the end of this year again until late 2038! By early January they will appear tipped more than one degree.

The rings, even at their best, are more obvious at 50 to 60 power. This time of year, be sure to give a telescope some time to get adjusted to the outside temperature, they work best at ambient. But be careful the lens does not dew or frost up. Like your car’s windshield, open to the night sky, the lens radiates heat and can dew or frost over when it is even well above freezing outside. Either cap the lens some of the time the telescope is cooling or point the telescope toward something warm, like your house. If it has a dew and light shield, extend it. Watch out for eyepieces too. One left in the telescope while you go in to warm up is almost certain to dew up.