Highlights this month
- 3TueThe Moon passes Mars — 2° apart. (3:29am)
- 3TueThe Moon passes Jupiter — 2° apart. (5:41am)
- 5ThuMercury in inferior conjunction with the Sun — lost in the glare. (1:20am)
- 5ThuSouthern Taurids meteor shower peaks (up to 5/hr). A thin 16% Moon leaves the sky dark.
- 12ThuVenus is stationary — resumes direct (eastward) motion. (2:31am)
- 13FriMercury is stationary — resumes direct (eastward) motion. (8:13pm)
- 16MonMars and Jupiter in conjunction — 1° apart. (5:24am)
- 17TueLeonids meteor shower peaks (up to 15/hr). A 48% Moon washes out fainter meteors for part of the night.
- 21SatMercury at greatest morning elongation (20° from the Sun, mag −0.5) — best morning apparition. (10:22am)
- 26ThuUranus at opposition — closest and brightest of the year, up all night in Taurus (mag 5.6). (9:53am)
There is a lot to see in the southern skies this month with just the naked eye or basic equipment. Start off by looking for the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) west of the constellation Pictor, and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) in Tucana. These are both irregular galaxies close to the Milky Way. A small telescope is all you need to explore the sparkling star clusters as well as the Tarantula Nebula (NGC 2070), nestled within the LMC. The globular cluster 47 Tucanae can be seen with the naked eye as a hazy star very close to the SMC. A large-aperture telescope shows its countless stars packed together in a dense ball. Looking towards the north-east, the Hyades and Pleiades open star clusters make excellent binocular targets.
In the east you can locate Canis Major, which is hard to miss because it is home to the blazing star Sirius. In Canis Major, the open clusters NGC 2362 and M41 make for good small-telescope targets. Also coming into view in the east are Orion and Taurus. It is easy to identify Orion, as its brightest stars are blue-white Rigel (Beta Orionis) and red Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis).
The Leonid meteor shower is active each November, and this year the Leonids will peak overnight on November 17-18. The shower is called Leonids because its radiant, or the point in the sky where the meteors seem to emerge from, lies in the constellation Leo. The Leonids occur when the Earth passes through the debris left by Comet Tempel-Tuttle, which takes about 33 years to make one orbit of the sun.
By Nerida Langcake
The sky in detail — November 2026
Sun & twilight
| Date | Sunrise | Sunset | Day length | Astro. dark begins | ends |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun 1 | 6:13am | 7:55pm | 13h 42m | 9:34pm | 4:34am |
| Tue 10 | 6:03am | 8:05pm | 14h 02m | 9:48pm | 4:21am |
| Fri 20 | 5:55am | 8:16pm | 14h 20m | 10:03pm | 4:08am |
| Mon 30 | 5:51am | 8:26pm | 14h 35m | 10:18pm | 3:59am |
Days lengthen by about 53 minutes over the month.
The Moon
- Last QuarterMon 2, 7:28am
- New MoonMon 9, 6:02pm
- First QuarterTue 17, 10:49pm
- Full MoonWed 25, 2:02am
Apogee 14 Nov (405,700 km) · Perigee 26 Nov (359,400 km)
The planets
Rise/set for mid-month at The Briars.
| Planet | In | Mag | Rise | Transit | Set | Best |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mercury | Vir | 0.0 | 5:20am | 11:58am | 6:36pm | Hidden |
| Venus | Vir | −4.6 | 4:31am | 11:06am | 5:40pm | Hidden |
| Mars | Leo | 0.7 | 2:23am | 7:37am | 12:51pm | Morning |
| Jupiter | Leo | −1.9 | 2:19am | 7:37am | 12:55pm | Morning |
| Saturn | Psc | 0.5 | 4:18pm | 10:17pm | 4:20am | Evening |
| Uranus | Tau | 5.6 | 8:57pm | 1:54am | 6:46am | Morning |
| Neptune | Psc | 7.8 | 3:47pm | 9:51pm | 3:58am | Evening |
Meteor showers
- Southern Taurids — peaks 5 November, radiant in Taurus (up to 5/hr). Sparse but rich in slow fireballs over a long, broad maximum. A thin 16% Moon leaves the sky dark.
- Leonids — peaks 17 November, radiant in Leo (up to 15/hr). Fast meteors; the radiant rises after midnight and is moderate from the south. A 48% Moon washes out fainter meteors for part of the night.
Computed for The Briars, Mt Martha. Times are local (Melbourne).
Generated automatically from the MPAS sky engine on 24 October 2026.
The solar system — November 2026
Evening sky Morning sky Up much of the night Lost in the Sun’s glare
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