SKYWATCHER'S REPORT, NOVEMBER 12, 1991

   Hello. This is the Smithsonian SkyWatcher's Report for the week
beginning November 12, 1991, from the Albert Einstein Planetarium at
the National Air and Space Museum.

   The Moon dominates the frosty evening skies this week, passing
through the star-poor autumnal constellations as she rises up from
the southern horizon to ride high overhead by week's end.  First
Quarter occurs on the 14th at 9:02 AM Eastern Standard Time.  Full
Moon occurs on the 21st at 5:56 PM.  Luna will try her best to wash
out the annual Leonid Meteor Shower, which peaks in the early morning
hours of the 18th, but she will set by around 3 AM, allowing a few
precious hours of darkness to look for the elusive shooting stars. 
The Leonid stream is notoriously erratic, but in 1966 it produced the
greatest meteor shower in recorded history, when over 120 meteors per
second were recorded by observers in California!  I saw several dozen
over the course of 10 minutes through a hole in the clouds over
Connecticut.  In recent years activity has been slowly increasing
from the poor showings of the mid-'70's, and it is quite possible
that we may be treated to another storm in 1999.  The Leonids are the
spawn of Comet Tempel-Tuttle, which orbits the sun with a 33 year
period.  They have been observed since 137 AD, and great swarms of
shooting stars have been seen at least once a century since then. 
You'll need to set the alarm clock and observe from a dark location
in order to catch this year's show, which may be exceeded only by
December's Geminids.

             Old Sol pulled a fast one on us last week, when a brilliant
display of Northern Lights were seen by many skywatchers in the
eastern US. Alas, it was cloudy at my house, but reports of vivid
colors, shimmering patterns and rapid motion were turned in from
numerous locations during the evening hours on the 8th.  This display
caught most scientists by surprise.  A display during the previous
week was caused by an enormous sunspot group, but the spot had
rotated off the visible solar disk when the most recent display
occurred.  A smaller sunspot seems to have been the culprit for this
unusual event, which just goes to show that our ignorance of solar
physics still outweighs our knowledge.  Keep an eye open for more
activity...you never know when it may suddenly occur.

   On a more stable note, Saturn may still be found wallowing in the
early evening sky.  Go out just as dusk falls and look in the south
for a yellowish star-like object.  You don't have very long to look,
however, as the ringed planet's southerly declination carries him
rapidly out of the sky.  By 10 PM he's gone, replaced by a lonely
whitish star awash in the emptiness of the southern Autumnal sky. 
The star is Fomalhaut, the 20th brightest star in the heavens, and it
marks the mouth of Pisces Austrinus, the Southern Fish.  Fomalhaut
epitomizes the fears of ancient mariners, who dreaded the fierce
storms of the season which devoured ships so far from home.

   On the other side of the sky, in the northwest, a brilliant
yellow star rises in the haze of the Milky Way.  This star was a good
omen to the ancient Romans, who named it Cornu Copiae, the Horn of
Plenty.  We know it as Capella, and it stands high overhead at
midnight by month's end, when we celebrate the bounty of the harvest.

   Jupiter and Venus are up to entertain early risers, though there
is now quite a bit of distance between them.  Old Jove is up first,
rising after the stars of the Winter Circle are high in the east.  He
trails bright Regulus, whose appearance I have always associated with
Spring.  Venus comes up after 3 AM, lying about halfway between
Jupiter and the bright blue star Spica.  Watch Venus close the gap on
Spica by the month's end, as she races relentlessly after the Sun.

   So, until next week, let the stars get in your eyes, and thank
you for calling the Smithsonian.