The Evening Sky in November 2026
Bright stars are scattered along the east and south skyline at dusk. At the start of the month Sirius, the brightest star, rises around 10:40 NZDT. By the end of the month it is up at sunset. Canopus, the second-brightest star, is in the southeast. Both stars twinkle like diamonds as the air disperses their white light.
Left of Sirius is the constellation of Orion, with 'The Pot' at its centre. Rigel, a bluish supergiant star, is directly above the line of three stars; orange Betelgeuse, a red-giant star, is straight below. Left again is orange Aldebaran. It is at one tip of a triangular group called the Hyades cluster. The Hyades and Aldebaran make the upside-down face of Taurus the bull.
Still further left is the Pleiades or Matariki star cluster, also called the Seven Sisters, Subaru and many other names. Six stars are visible to most eyes. Dozens are seen in binoculars. The cluster is 440 light-years* away and around 100 million years old.
Saturn is midway up the north sky at dusk. It looks like a medium-bright star with a cream tint, all by itself. A small telescope will show the ring and its biggest moon, Titan, looking like a close-by star. Saturn sets due west in the morning hours. The Moon is below Saturn on the 20th and 21st.
The Milky Way is low in the sky, visible around the horizon from the northwest, through south into the eastern sky. The broadest, brightest part is in Sagittarius, to the right of the Scorpion's sting. The Milky Way is our edgewise view of the galaxy, the pancake of billions of stars of which the Sun is just one.
Low in the south are the Pointers, Beta and Alpha Centauri, and Crux the Southern Cross, now upside down. In some Māori star lore the bright southern Milky Way makes the canoe of Maui with Crux being the canoe's anchor hanging off the side. In this picture the Scorpion's tail can be the canoe's prow and the Clouds of Magellan are the sails. Alpha Centauri is the closest naked-eye star; 4.3 light-years away.
The Clouds of Magellan, LMC and SMC, appear as two misty patches high in the southern sky, easily seen by eye on a dark moonless night. They are small galaxies about 160 000 and 200 000 light years-away. The globular star cluster 47 Tucanae looks like a slightly fuzzy star near the top-right edge of the small cloud, the SMC. 47 Tuc is about 13 000 light-years away and on the line of sight to the SMC. Globular clusters are spherical clouds of ancient stars.
Very low in the north is the Andromeda Galaxy, easily seen in binoculars in a dark sky, and faintly visible to the eye. It is like our Milky Way Galaxy and nearly three million light years away.
Jupiter rises in the northeast before 3:30 a.m. at the beginning of the month and around 1:30 at the end. It is the brightest ‘star’ in the morning sky till Venus appears, and shines with a steady golden light.
Mars is left of Jupiter at the beginning of the month. It is orange-red and much fainter than Jupiter. On the morning of the 3rd, the Moon will be between Jupiter and Mars. Mars moves toward Jupiter so that the two planets make a close vertical pair on the 18th. To their right is Regulus, the brightest star in Leo. It is a white star, a bit fainter than Mars. The planetary movements are all apparent, of course, caused by their movements and the movement of the Earth.
On the morning of December 1, Jupiter, Mars, the Moon and Regulus will be close together. Around 2:30 the Moon covers (occults) Regulus, hiding it until around 3:30. The exact times depend on your location.
Brilliant silver Venus rises in the southeast around 5:20 a.m., an hour before the Sun, at the beginning of the month and around 4 a.m., nearly two hours before the Sun, at the end. On the morning of the 8th, the thin crescent Moon will be near Venus.
*A light-year (l.y.) is the distance that light travels in one year: nearly 10 million million km or 10^13 km. Sunlight takes eight minutes to get here; moonlight about one second. Sunlight reaches Neptune, the outermost major planet, in four hours. It takes sunlight four years to reach the nearest star, Alpha Centauri.
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