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Moon farthest north, near Elnath, on night of November 9-10

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Tonight is Nov 10, 2014

spacer Courtesy U.S. Naval Observatory

Tonight – the night of November 9-10, 2014 – the moon swings to the northernmost point in its monthly orbit around Earth. The moon is farthest north for the month on November 9 at 23:12 Universal Time. Tonight’s moon shines in the vicinity of Elnath, the constellation Taurus’ second brightest star, after Aldebaran. As seen from mid-northern latitudes, the waning gibbous moon and star Elnath rise into the east-northwest sky around 7 to 8 p.m. local time (approximately the same time for all N. Hemisphere temperate latitudes). At temperate latitudes south of the equator, the moon and Elnath rise much later on this evening.

The much brighter star to the upper left of the moon and Elnath this evening is Capella, the northernmost first-magnitude star in all the heavens. See the sky chart below for more about Capella. This beacon star is the brightest light in the five-sided constellation Auriga the Charioteer.

The moon reaches its farthest point north of the celestial equator once (sometimes twice) a month. In contrast, the sun reaches its northernmost point but once a year. The sun’s farthest point north is frequently called the June (or northern) solstice. The moon’s northernmost point is sometimes referred to as a northern lunistice or a northern standstill. Click here for more about monthly lunar standstills: 2001-2100.

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Here’s a slightly shifted view of our chart at the top of the page. You can see that the moon resides south of the June solstice point on this night (November 9-10, 2014), while the star Elnath lies to the north of it. Read more: What is the ecliptic?

After the moon and Elnath rise tonight, they’ll climb highest up in the sky around 2 to 3 a.m. local time. For the N. Hemisphere, the moon won’t soar quite as high up as the summer solstice sun. And in the S. Hemisphere, tonight’s moon won’t descend quite as low as the winter solstice sun. That’s because the moon swings about 18.6o north (November 9) to 18.6o north (November 24) of the celestial equator in November 2014.

In contrast, the sun swings from about 23.5o north of the celestial equator on the June solstice and 23.5o south of the celestial equator on the December solstice.

Learn the star Elnath for handy reference. Whenever you see the moon close to this star, you’ll know that it’s the time of the month when the moon is at or near the northernmost point in its orbit!

Bottom line: On the night of November 9-10, 2014, you can watch as the moon and star Elnath light up the nighttime from mid-evening until dawn. The moon is far to the north tonight –- high in the sky from N. Hemisphere locations!

EarthSky lunar calendars make great gifts for astronomy-minded friends and family.

Elnath, northern horn of Taurus the Bull

Capella: Golden Goat Star

Bruce McClure
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