MINNESOTA STARWATCH FOR NOVEMBER 2026

MINNESOTA STARWATCH FOR NOVEMBER 2026

     Venus slips into the morning sky in the first week of November. Look near the east-southeastern horizon for the brilliant planet just before the sky starts to lighten. Try to get out on the 7th, when a scrawny old crescent moon appears to Venus’s lower right. 

     Next to Venus you’ll see Spica, the only bright star in the constellation Virgo, the maiden. Both Venus and Spica climb during the month, but start to go their separate ways by month’s end. 

     Also in the predawn sky, Mars and Jupiter stage a spectacular flyby high in the south. Jupiter shines near the bright star Regulus, the “point” in the backward question mark of stars outlining the head of Leo, the lion. Reddish Mars approaches Jupiter from the upper right and comes within 1.2 degrees of the giant planet the morning of the 16th. Mars keeps going, and forms a line with Regulus and a waning moon on the 30th.

     In the evening sky, Saturn shines as the lone bright object in the east to southeast at nightfall. Most of the fall constellations are dim, but notice the bright star very low in the southeast to south. This is Fomalhaut, a young star surrounded by an extensive ring of dust and debris and only 25 light-years from Earth.

     If the sky is good and dark, look above Saturn for the Great Square of Pegasus, which marks the torso of the winged horse of Greek and Roman mythology. Then look to the upper right of Saturn and below the Great Square for the Circlet of Pisces, a faint ring of six or seven stars, depending on how many you can see. 

     November’s full moon arrives on the 24th. Catch it hanging low in the west around sunrise, or watch it rise in the east, opposite the setting sun, that afternoon. 

The University of Minnesota offers public viewings of the night sky at its Duluth and Twin Cities campuses. For more information, see: Duluth, Marshall W. Alworth Planetarium