This month's sky
What to see in the night sky: November 2026
The Moon, the planets, the meteor showers and what is well placed in the evening, computed for the centre of France, with what a telescope really shows of each target.
- 9 NovNew moon
- 5–12 NovMoon-free nights
- 5naked-eye planets
- 17–18 NovLeonids
Dates and times are for November 2026, Paris time. On 1 December this page moves on to November 2027. Computed for the centre of metropolitan France: where you are, rising and setting times can be about half an hour off.
In brief
- Dark nights for faint objects: 5–12 November, around the new moon of 9 November.
- Planets: Saturn in the evening; Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter before dawn.
- Jupiter and Mars pass 1.2° apart around 16 November.
- Meteors: the Leonids peak on the night of 17–18 November.
The Moon
- Last quarterSunday 1 November, 21:28
- New moonMonday 9 November, 8:02
- First quarterTuesday 17 November, 12:48
- Full moonTuesday 24 November, 15:54
Moon-free evenings: 1–12 November and 29–30 November.
Whole nights without the Moon, the best for galaxies and nebulae: 5–12 November.
How it is counted
An evening counts as Moon-free when the Moon is below the horizon, or less than 15 % lit, for the first three hours of full darkness (the Sun more than 18° below the horizon). A whole night: the same, from dusk to dawn. The 15 % is a rule of thumb: a thin crescent barely brightens the sky.
Quarter times computed with astronomy-engine and checked against the US Naval Observatory's tables, to within two minutes.
The planets
Times and heights for the night of 15–16 November, Paris time, rounded to the quarter hour.
- MercuryBefore dawn · 15–26 NovemberLow in the dawn twilight: 11° up, south-east, around 7:15.Magnitude −0.2: as bright as the brightest stars.
- VenusBefore dawn · from 7 November · higher day by dayLow in the dawn twilight: 19° up, south-east, around 7:15.Highest on 30 November: 26°.Magnitude −4.8: brighter than any star.
- MarsBefore dawn · all monthVisible from 2:00 until dawn · highest around 7:00, 58° due southMagnitude 0.7: as bright as the brightest stars.
- JupiterBefore dawn · all monthVisible from 2:00 until dawn · highest around 7:00, 57° due southMagnitude −2.1: brighter than any star.
- SaturnIn the evening · all monthVisible from nightfall to 1:45 · highest around 21:45, 44° due southMagnitude 0.5: as bright as the brightest stars.
How a planet is counted
A planet counts as visible when it stands more than 20° above the horizon with the Sun more than 6° below it — or, if it is bright (magnitude 1 or brighter), 10° up in the twilight, over a clear horizon. Observing rules of thumb, not optics. Magnitude: the smaller the number, the brighter; Sirius, the brightest star, is −1.5.
Meteor showers
Southern Taurids
Peak on the night of 5–6 November · active 20 September – 20 November
At best between 1:00 and 2:00: about 2 an hour under a suburban sky, about 4 under a dark one.
No Moon in the way that night.
Northern Taurids
Peak on the night of 12–13 November · active 20 October – 10 December
At best between 1:00 and 2:00: about 2 an hour under a suburban sky, about 5 under a dark one.
No Moon in the way that night.
Leonids
Peak on the night of 17–18 November · active 6–30 November
At best between 6:00 and 7:00: about 4 an hour under a suburban sky, about 13 under a dark one.
The Moon (57 % lit) is up for 1 of the 8 useful hours.
How the numbers are worked out
Hourly rate = ZHR × sin(radiant height) × r^(limiting magnitude − 6.5): the International Meteor Organization's formula, with the radiant's height computed hour by hour for the centre of France. The ZHR is an ideal, the count with the radiant overhead under a sky showing stars to magnitude 6.5; almost no one reaches it.
Rules of thumb, not physics: the faintest star each sky shows (Bortle 6 for a suburb, Bortle 3 for a dark site), what the Moon's light takes away, and counting only the hours with the Sun more than 12° below the horizon. The rates are for an attentive observer lying back under a clear sky; a beginner counts about half.
ZHR used: Southern Taurids 5–10, Northern Taurids 5 and Leonids 15.
International Meteor Organization: 2026 meteor shower calendar
Dates to note
Jupiter and Mars pass 1.2° apart around 16 November. Both in one low-power field — the rare view where a small telescope beats a big one. Jupiter through a telescope →
Well placed in the evening
At least 25° above the horizon at 21:30 on 15 November:
- The Andromeda Galaxy M3183° · nearly overheadrecognisable from 79 mm (rule of thumb)
- The Double Cluster NGC 869 / NGC 88469° · north-eastrecognisable from 48 mm (rule of thumb)
- The Pleiades M4543° · due eastrecognisable from 16 mm (rule of thumb)
- The Dumbbell Nebula M2733° · due westrecognisable from 174 mm (rule of thumb)
- Albireo β Cygni32° · due westrecognisable from 50 mm (rule of thumb)
- The Ring Nebula M5729° · due westrecognisable from 111 mm (rule of thumb)
Earlier in the evening: the Hercules Cluster until about 20:00.
Later: the Orion Nebula from about 23:45.
The aperture to recognise each one under a suburban sky (Bortle 6) is an observing rule of thumb, not optics. Each target's page has the three levels and the other skies.
Why 25° at 21:30
21:30 is the middle of the hour most people are out after dinner (or the end of twilight, in the months when it is not dark by then), and the 15th the middle of the month. Below 25° you look through more than twice the air overhead (air mass 1/sin 25° ≈ 2.4): murk, turbulence and the neighbour's roof. The stars rise about 4 minutes earlier each night: at the start of the month the same sky comes about an hour later, at the end about an hour earlier.