We’ve actually got it pretty good right now, as we enjoy a brief warm period between major ice ages 100,000 years apart.  Similarly, the Sun’s energy output rises and falls in 11-year cycles.  The Sun is rather dormant now, but it will awaken in a year or so, and in 5 years it will reach “solar maximum” and warm the globe even more..   

Earth’s pole is tilted a whopping 23º relative to its orbital plane around the sun, and that tilt is independent of where Earth is in the orbit, so the North Pole always points toward the North Star.  At this point, the pole is approaching an angle directly away from the Sun, which it will reach only three weeks after month’s end.  

The Sun rises late, rolls over the horizon, never gets up very high, and sets early.  The slanted sunrays glance off the edges of the earth, and Maine’s global position half-way between the equator and the pole, when added to the tilt which pushes Earth over half-again, leaves us in the cold. 

Lucky for us, Earth is now also approaching perihelion, its closest point to the Sun. Earth’s orbital ellipse is minor compared to other wild swingers in the universe, but it still brings Earth 4 million miles nearer the Sun now than it was in June, enough to moderate our winters (and summers) to tolerable levels.   

Earth spins counter-clockwise, but like a toy top as it slows down, the pole moves in a clockwise rotation called precession.  It’s imperceptibly slow, but in 13,000 years the North Pole will be both tipped toward and closer to the sun in summer, and it will be both tipped away and further away from the sun in winter, causing wilder temperature swings and thus stronger storms. 

Our neighboring planets are scattered around the Sun, some ahead us in their orbits (Mercury and Saturn, in the morning to the east) and some behind us (Venus and Jupiter, in the evening to the west).  Mercury is so small and so near the Sun it’s hard to find within the short window of opportunity it permits, and it ducks out of sight entirely by mid-month.  You can see it close up on the internet, because the Messenger satellite is circling Mercury, taking pictures and beaming them back to Earth.    

Saturn is still a few months ahead of us but can be dimly seen now higher in the pre-dawn sky, its rings nearly edge-on to us.  It’s being circled by the Cassini spacecraft, which is now exploring the geysers on Enceladus, an icy moon that helps shepherd the rings around Saturn.  

Venus is getting ridiculously bright west over the cape after sunset, and it will continue to grow throughout the month, as it approaches a dazzling rendezvous with Jupiter at month’s end—they will be so close they’ll look like headlights in the sky, barely one finger apart at arm’s length.  Talk about dancing with the stars, how about waltzing with the planets?  Jupiter is now low in the south after dusk—about the same position as the bright star Sirius before dawn, just below Orion, after the world has turn half way around.   

Jupiter is much bigger than Venus, of course, but it’s much, much further away, and will look pale next our sister planet, whose cloud-tops are unusually reflective, especially when the sunlight skips off them at a shallow angle as she approaches quadrature next month.  During the first and last few days of the month the crescent moon will pass the pair, first when they’re apart, and last when they’re together.  

Nov. 1- Sunrise is at 7:16 a.m. and sunset is at 5:32 p.m.  Daylight Saving Time ends at 2 a.m. tomorrow (Sunday), so turn your clocks back an hour before you hit the hay tonight.  We’ll now have more light in the morning, and less in the evening— the better to see the stars at night (in astronomy, things are always looking up).  

Nov. 2- The Moon’s at apogee, away from Earth, so tides are calming.  The next two weeks Vesta, the brightest asteroid is in the southeast sky late at night. It’s “the size of Arizona” and in 3 years the Dawn spacecraft will approach it and send close-up photos back to Earth. 

Nov. 3- A small fat crescent Moon passes just below Jupiter in the south-southwest.  

Nov. 5- Neap tide today, running just 5.6 feet between high and low.  

Nov. 6- First-quarter Moon is high at sunset. The next week is best for moon-gazing as the Moon waxes gibbous.  

Nov. 13- Full “Beaver” (or “Frosty”) Moon rises at 4:12 p.m., so those on the 4:30 boat home can see it rising out of Casco Bay.  Moonset is at 7:11 a.m., so those on the 7:15 boat to town can watch it set over the city.  It will wash out the star-gazing tonight, but it provides good light for walking.  

Nov. 14- The Moon’s at perigee, close to Earth, so tides are building.  In fact, the highest this month is at 11:02 a.m. today, and the lowest tide this month is at 5:31 p.m., the water falling 13.2 feet between them.  

Nov. 19- Last-quarter Moon is high at sunrise.  

Nov. 21- A waning crescent Moon is near Saturn tonight (not really, of course, just in our line of sight). 

Nov. 27- The New Moon’s at apogee.  It’s on the same side of Earth as the Sun is today, so they rise and fall together, but the Sun blinds us to the nearby Moon.  

Nov. 30- A thin crescent Moon hangs below Jupiter and Venus, but tomorrow it will sit above them.  Sunrise is at 6:53 a.m., and sunset is at 4:05 p.m., giving us barely more than 9 hours of sunlight, but we’re only a few weeks from the winter solstice, when the Sun will stop and head North again.