November brings special planetary views, Leonids Meteor Shower to Hawaii skies

Many people incorrectly attribute the start of the Makahiki season to be in Welehu (November), based on the first sighting of Makali‘i (the constellation Pleiades) rising in the east.

However, according to Kona resident and author David Malo, the first lunar night, Hilo, in the lunar month of ‘Ikuwa (October) marks the beginning of the four-month Makahiki season.

Born in 1795, Malo’s singular account of Hawaiian culture and society, “Hawaiian Antiquities,” was recorded at a time when Hawaiian culture and religion still reflected authentic practice.

The start of Makahiki in October allowed Hawaiians to prepare for the religious and cultural events that controlled their lives for a third of the year. It was also a time when the ranking ali‘i began his circuitous clockwise journey from community to community to collect tribute, a tax paid in harvest of food and fish, and utilitarian items, feathers and cordage. The three phases of the Makahiki season were the Ho‘okupu, offerings to the gods; Ho‘okuku, competitions and games; and Wa‘a Auhau, a setting off of ritual taxes on a miniature canoe.

People living in Kona could not see the rising of Makali‘i, the Pleiades, as the eastern horizon is obscured by the mountains of Hualalai and Mauna Loa. They had to use another celestial marker to identify the start of the season: Nahiku, the Big Dipper. People in Kona would only need to look west and watch Nahiku set into the sea.

20 new moons found

Using the Subaru Telescope atop Mauna Kea, a team led by Scott S. Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science has found 20 new moons orbiting Saturn.

This brings the ringed planet’s total number of moons to 82, surpassing Jupiter, which has 79.

Each of the newly discovered moons is about 3 miles in diameter. Seventeen of them orbit the planet backwards, or in a retrograde direction, meaning their movement is opposite of the planet’s rotation.

By using some of the largest telescopes in the world, researchers are now able to complete the inventory of small moons around the giant planets.

To read more about this discovery, visit Subaru Telescope’s website: subaru telescope.org/Pressrelease/ 2019/10/07/index.html.

Special event

Throughout most of November, the Leonids Meteor Shower will be decorating our night sky with shooting stars. These stars are the debris left behind from the comet Tempel-Tuttle, which passes close to the sun every 33 years. The comet’s last closest approach was in 1998. Observers can expect to see about 15 meteors per hour at the peak of the shower on Nov. 17.

The incredibly bright planets of Jupiter and Venus will be visible immediately after sunset and both will be setting before 8 p.m. throughout November. As the month progresses, Venus and Jupiter will appear to get closer and closer to each other until Nov. 24, when the planets will go through a conjunction. On this date, these two bright planets will appear to be merged together as one bright dot. The conjunction will be visible in the southwest direction, immediately after sunset (5:48 p.m. in Honolulu) until 7:30 p.m. when the planets set.

Evening observations

At 8 p.m. in November, Saturn will be low in the southwestern sky. This beautiful gas giant is most famous for its distinctive rings that can be viewed using a good telescope. Saturn’s rings are the most noticeable of all the gas giant planets as the rings are packed full of ice, which makes them more reflective.

Facing north, stargazers will be able to make out the notable “W” shape of ‘Iwakeli’i, the royal frigate bird, or Cassiopeia. ‘Iwakeli‘i marks some of the northernmost stars of the starline Kalupeakawelo, which stretches over our fall sky. On dark clear nights, observers will be able to notice a small fuzzy smudge in the sky about 15 degrees south of ‘Iwakel‘i; this is the Andromeda Galaxy, the only object outside of the Milky Way that can be observed with the naked eye.

Rising in the northwestern sky is the famous star cluster Makali‘i, the Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters or Subaru in Japan. This cluster of hot, young, blue stars is visible and its rising in the early evening sky is an important observation for numerous cultures around the world.

Morning observations

In November, the sun will rise just after 6:30 a.m. Rising out of the southeastern sky will be the reddish planet Mars.

In these early hours the famous shape of Orion the Hunter, also known as Kaheiheionakeiki, will stand out high in the western sky. Not far from this famous constellation will be Sirius, ‘A‘a, the brightest star in the sky.

NOWEMAPA (NOVEMBER) SKIES A… by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd

Chad Kalepa Baybayan (Kalepa.Baybayan@hawaii.edu) serves as navigator-in-residence and Emily Peavy (Emily.Peavy@hawaii.edu) as planetarium technician support facilitator at the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii, a center for informal science education at the University of Hawaii at Hilo showcasing astronomy and Hawaiian culture as parallel journeys of human exploration.