The International Space Station can be seen flying over the UK during the next week. And, since it has solar panels the size of a football field, it is very bright and very easy to see – weather permitting, of course! The times (in GMT) of when the station flies over the UK are as follows (if you live elsewhere, take a look at SpaceWeather.com satellite flyby website)…

The disappearence time is when the space station flies into the shadow of the Earth, and that sometimes occurs when the space station is directly over head (such as on the 29th of November).

The Space-Shuttle is currently docked with the Space Station, but on the morning of Friday the 28th, the pair seperate. So when you look after the 28th, you will not only see one bright point of light, you will see two – the Space Shuttle chasing the Space Station!

On the 1st of December, the Moon glides in front of the Venus, on its moonthly journey around the Earth.

[Click on the images below for a larger version] Above: The moon begins to hide Venus at 15:50 GMT.

Venus is once again visible at 17:19 GMT.

Jupiter is also visible in the evening sky to the top-right of the Moon & Venus. Just look towards the South-West to see all three.

The occultation of Venus will begin a few seconds before 15:50 GMT, disappearing behind the dark (in shadow) side of the Moon in just 40 seconds!

Even though this event begins in daylight, you will still be able to see it with your own eyes, through binoculars, or through a small telescope. To find the Moon, just look towards the South. Make sure that you do not look anywhere near the Sun to the West. Looking towards the Sun can do serious long-term damage to your eyes.

The Moon finally uncovers Venus once again at 17:19:15 GMT, and it takes Venus about 40 seconds to re-appear.

By the time Venus re-appears, the Sun is below the horizon and it is dark. So it promises to be an interesting sight to see the bright Venus slowly re-appear from behind the Moon! Although, when it does so, the Moon and Venus will only be 8 degrees above the horizon as seen from Greenwich.

As shown in the lower-right image, Jupiter is also visible, just to the top-right of Venus and the Moon.

It is always worth admiring the night sky, since you may never know what you will see. If you are lucky, you might just see a fireball burning through the night sky!

Which is exactly what happened to observers in western Canada just a few days ago, as reported by Andy Barlett via SpaceWeather.com (as shown in his image, right).

And better still, it has been caught on video…

See also:

• Andy Barlett’s video available as an AVI movie from at SpaceWeather.com, or as a YouTube video;
• Or the view from a police car (shown above);
• From a car park CCTV camera;
• Or from a fisheye lens;

Although such bright meteors are rare, I did see a fireball of a similar brightness myself, in December 1994. So it is always worth looking!

Look low to the South-West just after sunset, and you can see a beautiful pair of planets. But you only have less than an hour and a half to catch this beautiful sight, since Venus rapidly chases the Sun below the horizon.

Over the next few weeks, Venus is getting ever-closer to Jupiter. And on the 1st of December, Jupiter, Venus and the Moon are all within just two degrees of each other… more about that next week!

In the above photograph, Jupiter is to the top-left, and the brighter Venus is to the bottom-right.

Do take a closer look at Jupiter through binoculars or a small telescope – or even a camera! I took the photograph below using just a standard 300mm zoom lens and a Canon 40D camera…

On the evening of the 13^th of November 2008, the Moon will glide across the face of the Pleiades star cluster. This star cluster is also known as the seven sisters, as the seven brightest stars in the cluster are visible to the unaided eye – although over 50 can be seen through binoculars.

We call such events, when one astronomical object covers another, an occultation. So on the 13th, the Moon occults the Pleiades. It begins when the Moon rises in the East at about 16:20 GMT, and it takes the Moon 6 hours to pass across all seven of the sisters.

The event will not look so spectacular, because the Moon’s brightness will all but drown-out the view of the star cluster! But take a look through binoculars or a telescope, and you will be able to see the Moon slowly glide over the stars in the cluster over the course of a few hours.

And as it does, just think – You are actually watching the Moon orbit around the Earth, passing in front of the background of stars, at over 2000 mph!

The Taurid meteor shower is underway, and will last the next few days (until the 12th of November). The shower is caused by the Earth ploughing through debris left behind by Comet Encke.

This year may be a swarm year, but there is only one way to find out for sure… and that is to go outside and look! Since the meteors could appear anywhere in the sky, all you need to do is to look up with your own eyes.

Throughout November, Venus is becoming easier to see in the evening sky. Look towards the South-West immediately after sunset, and it is very low on the horizon… so low, in fact, that it may be behind any nearby trees! If you cannot spot it, wait until December & January to get a much better view.

Just to the top left of Venus, is Jupiter. Both are very bright and easy to see with only your own eyes. Binoculars will reveal Jupiter’s four biggest and brightest Moons.

In the last few days of November, Jupiter and Venus will be very close to each other – just a few degrees apart!

And on the 1st of December, the Moon passes directly in front of Venus! Do make sure you take a look – it is rather strange to see the brightest thing in the night sky suddenly disappear behind the Moon!

Even though the summer has long gone, the Sun is setting so early that we are still able to see the constellations Cygnus, Lyra & Aquila, where the brightest star in each make up the summer triangle. Although these constellations were directly overhead in the summer, they are now low down in the west, ducking beneath the western horizon at 9pm by the end of November – but ideal targets for the early evening.

The star that forms the head of Cygnus the swan is called Albireo, a blue and golden double star that is a beautiful sight with either binoculars or a small telescope. Note that Cygnus is flying directly downwards, head-first into the western horizon! Just to the right of Albireo is the Ring Nebula in Lyra, the left over remains of a star that puffed out its outer layers to form the nebula some 1,500 years ago. And to the left is the Dumbell Nebula, another treat for small telescope owners.

Almost directly overhead, high in the east, is the easily recognisable W-shape of the constellation Cassiopeia. To the right of the W-shape, is the Andromeda Galaxy – it is the most distant object that can be seen with the unaided eye, a staggering 2.25 million light-years away! The hundred thousand million stars that make up the Andromeda galaxy are what helps us see it from such a distance!

Looking to the east, you can see Orion rising from 9pm, meaning that winter is here! Above Orion is Taurus, with a beautiful desert-island cluster of a hundred stars about the same size in the sky as the full Moon, called the Pleiades (or seven sisters as it is also known because seven stars are just about visible to the unaided eye). In fact, the on the night of the 13th, the Moon passes directly in front of the Pleiades.