November Stargazing: Supermoon number two, meteors galore, and ‘naked’ Saturn.
| November 5 | Super Beaver Moon |
| From November 5 to 12 | Taurid meteor showers expected to peak |
| From November 17 to 19 | Predicted peak of the Leonid meteor shower |
| November 23 | Saturn visible without rings |
A bull, a lion, a beaver and a raving madman walk into a bar… This month’s stargazing comes with a rich cast of characters, manifesting in two (or three?) distinct meteor showers, the most super moon and a rare glimpse of Saturn without its most famous prop.
November 5: Full Beaver Supermoon
“Super full beaver moon” isn’t a combination of words you come across often, but this month brings the second of three consecutive supermoons. The November moon also brings our orbital friend closer. That makes it a sort of… super super moon?
A true supermoon – that is, an exact match between the Moon’s full illumination and its position at its closest point to Earth – is relatively rare. The term superlative is used more generally to describe a full moon where the moon is at or near its perigee, or at the point where it is closest to Earth. This explains how we have three in a row at the end of 2025, and how the November one is the most great among the trio.
According to the Farmer’s Almanac, you will be able to appreciate the full splendor of this supermoon on November 5 at 8:19 a.m. EST. Native American culture offers many fascinating alternative names for the November moon: some particularly poetic nicknames include “The Rivers Begin to Freeze the Moon” of the Cree Nations, “Sleeping Bear Moon” of the Haida Nations, and “Fledgling Hawk Moon” of the Hopi Nations.
November 5-12: Expected peak of Taurid meteor showers
The annual celestial event called the Taurid meteor shower is actually made up of two separate showers: the Northern and Southern Taurids. The Northern Taurids come from debris thrown off by an asteroid, called asteroid 2004 TG10. Meanwhile, the Southern Taurids come from the trace left by comet 2P/Encke. The two showers are grouped together because scientists believe the asteroid and comet are fragments of a single, much larger object that broke apart about 20,000 years ago, leaving a collection of debris known collectively as the Encke Complex.
The Southern Taurids are expected to peak around November 5, but the aforementioned supermoon could make them difficult to see, making their northern cousins a better bet for spotting fireballs.
The peak of the northern rain is forecast for the night of November 9 through the early hours of November 12. The radiant point, the point where meteors appear to come from, is just to the right of the constellation Taurus. According to NASA, the best time to observe is after midnight, when Taurus is high in the sky.
Showers from the North and South are notorious for producing bright, slow-moving fireballs, and there may be a lot of them.
November 17-19: Predicted peak of the Leonid meteor shower
The Taurids aren’t the only meteor shower to see in November. The Leonids are also in town, peaking over three days in the middle of the month. The radiant point of the shower is in the constellation Leo, the lion, more precisely in the neck of the lion, just between the stars Algieba and Rasalas. Leo doesn’t rise until after midnight, but once it does, the nights of November 16 and 17 should offer plenty of meteors to see.
However, you will need to be vigilant. Unlike the majestic Taurids, the Leonids are fast racing cars that cross the Earth’s atmosphere at hundreds of thousands of kilometers per hour. They even got a mention in the Guinness Book of Records in the “Fastest Meteor Shower” category.
Fortunately, this year provides favorable viewing conditions for Leonid viewing, as it falls two full weeks after the full moon. The moon will only be a crescent, meaning its light will not interfere with the show. Look east, find the lion in the sky, then make a wish on a shooting star.
November 23: Saturn devours its rings
There is no doubt that Saturn’s defining feature is its glorious rings. Made almost entirely of water ice, the rings extend in a surprisingly flat plane perpendicular to the planet’s orbital axis. They start 4,300 miles from Saturn and extend for a distance of 50,000 miles, but they are barely 30 feet wide in some places,
But this month, the worst father in the solar system lays bare. Earth has spent much of the year oscillating near the plane of Saturn’s ring system, and on November 23 we will be pretty much perfectly aligned with that plane. This means that the rings will be almost invisible. If you look at the planet through a telescope, you might only see them as a thin line – or you might not see them at all, just Saturn laid bare in all its gaseous, filiphagic glory.
To spot it, look south then crane your neck to look about 45° from the horizon. Saturn will be there, lurking between the constellations of Pisces and Aquarius.
Whatever you’re looking for in the sky, remember that you’ll get the best experience if you move away from any sources of light pollution and allow your eyes to acclimatize to the darkness.And check out our stargazing tips before heading out into the night.
Until next month!
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