The Skies

Sun and Moon Data

To find sun and moon rising and setting times for your park or office, go to the U.S. Naval Observatory’s Complete Sun and Moon Data for One Day webpage.

Night Skies

An update on the moon, planets and night skies for the month of November, updated weekly.

The visible planets this week:

• Mars – Mars is visible in the early evening near the southwestern horizon.
• Jupiter – Jupiter rises in the northeast as Mars sets in the southwest. It’s not visible until late evening, rising with the bright star Aldebaran.
• Venus – Venus continues to be visible in the pre-dawn sky.

Calendar of upcoming celestial events for November:

• Sunday, 11/11 – The moon passes five degrees south of Venus.
• Monday, 11/12 – The moon passes four degrees south of Saturn.
• Tuesday, 11/13 – The moon is new (dark).
• Thursday, 11/15 – Venus passes four degrees north of the bright star Spica.
• Friday, 11/16 – The moon passes four degrees north of Mars.
• Saturday, 11/17 – The Leonid meteor shower is at its peak tonight. Astronomers expect the shower to produce 15 to 20 meteors per hours shortly before dawn.
• Monday, 11/26 – Venus will pass very close by Saturn at midnight.
• Wednesday, 11/28 – The moon is full. It will pass close by Jupiter in the evening sky.

For more information on stars, planets and other night sky phenomena, go to “The Sky This Week” page at the U.S. Naval Observatory page at http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/tours-events/sky-this-week

The Weather

Watches and Warnings

The principal watches and warnings posted as of early this morning were as follows. Note that these change over the course of a day and represent only initial daily forecasts. Click on this link for a full-sized map showing these hazards:

• Red flag warnings – An area in the Florida Panhandle.
• Winter weather watches, warnings and advisories – Northern California and southern Oregon; much of Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, Idaho and eastern Washington and parts of New Mexico and Minnesota.
• High wind watches and warnings – Most of the Four Corners states, southern California, Wyoming and Texas.

For additional information on severe weather, go to the NOAA Storm Prediction Center at http://www.spc.noaa.gov/ .

Tropical Cyclones

Today’s reports from the National Hurricane Center and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (western Pacific):

• Neither center is currently tracking any tropical cyclones.

For additional information on Atlantic and eastern Pacific tropical cyclones, go to the National Hurricane Center web page at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/. For information on western Pacific tropical cyclones, go to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center at http://www.usno.navy.mil/JTWC/.

This Day in NPS History

In The Parks

On November 9, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln visited Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC, to see the play "The Marble Heart," starring John Wilkes Booth. Booth would play another role when Lincoln revisited the theater on April 14, 1865.  The theater and the house across the street where Lincoln died after his assassination now compose Ford's Theatre National Historic Site. Click here for other park anniversary dates.

In Memoriam

On November 9, 1908, Platt National Park laborer Virgil McGoodwin, 34, was killed when he was struck in the head by a six-foot-long steel drill while working on the realignment of a park road. Click here for a full list of on-duty deaths.

From The Morning Report Archives

Today’s incident from the Morning Report archives:

Whiskeytown NRA – Rangers and county deputies arrested a 56-year-old California man on August 8, 1988 for cultivating marijuana in the park. A total of 1,423 plants were confiscated within five gardens, each of which was supported by a highly sophisticated drip irrigation system.

Contact Information
Name: Bill Halainen, Editor