Six sky events to watch over Kuwait this November

Mark your calendar: Kuwait’s skies are about to get busy, with six separate astronomical events happening in just one month.

The Al-Ujairi Scientific Center has laid out the full November sky calendar for Kuwait, and it’s a good one. If you enjoyed watching the Moon, Jupiter and Mars line up over Kuwait earlier this week, there’s more coming, including another planet pairing, a meteor shower and a full moon with an unusual name.

What’s happening, and when

It all starts on 9 November at 10:03am Kuwait time, when the new crescent moon of Jumada Al-Thani (the Islamic calendar month) is born. This is when the moon lines up with the sun, starting a fresh lunar cycle. You won’t see much in the sky at this exact moment, but it marks the start of the month’s events.

Things get more visual on 15 November, when Jupiter and Mars appear close together in the night sky. Jupiter will pass just 1 degree and 14 arcminutes south of Mars, a gap small enough that both planets will look like close neighbours. From Kuwait City, you can catch this conjunction at 11:29pm, low above the southeastern horizon. This follows the same pattern as the Moon-Jupiter-Mars lineup we covered on 3 November, so this has been an active month for planet watching.

Two days later, on 17 and 18 November, the Leonid meteor shower peaks. This happens when small bits of rock and dust, left behind by a comet or asteroid, burn up as they hit Earth’s atmosphere. The result is streaks of bright, fast light across the sky. If you’ve watched a meteor shower before, like the one we covered last month, the Leonids follow the same idea, just a different source comet.

Mercury, the Beaver Moon and Venus

On 20 November, Mercury reaches what’s called its greatest western elongation. In plain terms, this means Mercury will be as far from the Sun, in the sky, as it gets this cycle. Mercury is normally hard to spot because it sits so close to the Sun’s glare. This date gives early risers their best shot at seeing it in the morning sky.

Then, on 24 November, the Moon turns full while sitting in the constellation Taurus. November’s full moon has a traditional name: the Beaver Moon. The name comes from Native American tradition, tied to the time of year when beavers build their dams before winter. It’s simply this year’s label for November’s full moon, nothing more unusual than that.

The month wraps up on 27 November, when Venus reaches its greatest brightness of the year. It will shine at magnitude -4.7, a measure astronomers use for how bright an object appears, where lower numbers mean brighter. From Kuwait City, Venus will sit about 39 degrees above the horizon at sunrise, making it hard to miss in the morning sky.

What this means if you live in Kuwait

None of these events need special equipment. A conjunction, a meteor shower and a bright Venus are all visible with just your eyes, away from bright city lights. For the Jupiter-Mars conjunction and the Leonids, head somewhere with a clear view of the horizon and little light pollution, areas outside the city tend to work best.

If you’re into timing your plans around clear skies, this follows on from October’s sky show over Kuwait, which also had a busy run of events. For more local stories like this, check our Local news coverage.

Quick answers