November 19, 2025: With the moon near its New phase, moonlight no longer hides faint celestial treasures. Step outside to find the Great Andromeda Galaxy, the Double Cluster in Perseus, and the globular star cluster Messier 15 in Pegasus, high in the southern sky after dusk.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:46 a.m. CST; Sunset, 4:27 p.m. CST. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times.
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November’s Celestial Wonders
With the moon near the New phase, its light does not blot out the fainter celestial wonders. Recently, articles here described how to find the Great Andromeda Galaxy (M 31) and the Double Cluster (h Per and χ Per) in Perseus. The globular star cluster in Pegasus is in an ideal spot for viewing during the evening hours.
Step outside two hours after sunset — not so late considering the early sunsets — and look high in the southern sky. The Great Square of Pegasus, representing the Winged Horse’s body, is there. Its stars are about the same brightness as those in the Big Dipper.
Northern hemisphere sky watchers see the horse on its back. Pegasus’ neck begins at Markab, extending toward the southwest to Baham, which could represent an eye, and then up in the sky to Enif, the nose.
Star Clusters
The globular star cluster, the 15th entry in Charles Messier’s catalog of faint sky objects that are not to be confused with comets, is about 4.2° to Enif’s upper right and in the same binocular field. With the binocular sharply focused, the star cluster appears as a fuzzy star about half the moon’s diameter. Through a telescope, individual stars are visible on the edges.
M 15 is thought to be 40,000 light years away and about 130 light years across. At that distance, all the stars in the cluster shine with the intensity of 200,000 suns.
Unlike the galactic star clusters — such as the Pleiades, Beehive, and Double Cluster — the globulars seem to be tightly packed with thousands of stars. They revolve around the galactic nucleus outside the plane of the Milky Way, like bees swarming around a hive.
When they were mapped over a century ago, the globular clusters were concentrated toward the Sagittarius region of the sky, located low in the southwest after sunset during November.
Before the moon returns to the evening sky and its light washes out the dimmer celestial wonders, find Messier 15, as well as M 31 and the Double Cluster in Perseus.
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