🌕 Full Moon & bright nights

The Moon is full on Wednesday, 5 November at 14:19 CEST. If skies clear, nights will be bright. On 6 November, the Moon will pass close to the Pleiades as it rises in the east.

🪐 Planets (quick look)

• Mercury (~–0.1 mag): just past greatest eastern elongation; not observable in the evening here.
• Venus (–3.9 mag): the morning star, very low in the east around 06:00 CET.
• Mars (1.5 mag): not observable in the evening, near the Sun.
• Jupiter (–2.4 mag): higher after midnight, best before dawn.
• Saturn (0.9 mag): excellent evening visibility; culminates before 21:00 about ~35° above the south; ring tilt < 0.5°.
• Uranus (5.6 mag): ~4° below the Pleiades — use this map.
• Neptune (7.8 mag): near Saturn; nudge the scope ~4° left. To confirm, see this map.

☀️ Solar activity

Currently low on the Earth-facing side, but the far side produced three large plasma clouds after strong eruptions — we’ll see more as the Sun rotates. Follow updates at Spaceweather.com, Solarham, and Spaceweatherlive. Sunspots: SDO latest image and archive summary.

☄️ Comets (hunting tips)

• C/2025 A6 (Lemmon): Moonlight + low altitude; last nice evenings (Sat–Sun before moonrise). Tail 2–3° in binoculars, >20° in photos.
• C/2025 R2 (SWAN): from the weekend best in the evening (diffuse, no tail), high in Ophiuchus.
• C/2025 T1 (ATLAS): fainter; on the Ursa Major/Draco border, receding from M101.
• C/2025 K1 (ATLAS): survived perihelion, looks good; until 4 November it’s a morning object without moonlight, soon angularly near the Leo Triplet (M65/66).
• 3I/ATLAS (interstellar): very low before dawn late in the week but fairly bright — worth a try.

💫 Taurids

The Taurid meteor shower is hampered by moonlight, but bright green fireballs do occur. A slow meteor seeming to radiate from Taurus could be a fragment of comet 2P/Encke.

Author: Martin Gembec