THURSDAY:  Partly sunny, pleasant, 45-50

FRIDAY:  Areas of rain likely, 50-55

SATURDAY:  Sunny start, increasing clouds PM, some showers possible at night

SUNDAY:  Cloudy with rain or a rain/snow mix possible, near 40

Sky Happenings

By Terry Eliasen, Meteorologist, WBZ-TV Exec. Weather Producer

BOSTON (CBS) — We’ve been stuck in the clouds for what seems like most of November at this point. After a gloomy, damp several days, the skies will soon be clearing and just in time to give us a shot at seeing some fun astronomical happenings!

MYSTERY METEOR SHOWER

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The Earth will be passing by a stream of debris from an unknown comet, bringing the chance of seeing some “shooting stars”.

WHEN: Thursday night, likely after 11 p.m.

WHERE: Sit back, and look up.  . . try to get a clear view of the horizon in all directions, away from any natural light.

SKY CONDITIONS: After a sunny day on Thursday, high clouds will be streaming in Thursday night ahead of our next rain chance on Friday. . . so the window is rather tight and brief here to see any meteors.

LAST THOUGHTS: This meteor shower is a bit of a mystery to astronomers. They are calling it the Alpha Monocerotid meteor shower, and there is a chance that there could be a very brief burst of long lived, dramatic meteors streaking across our sky. The band of debris is very thin, so there are just about equal chances of seeing nothing. However, if we catch it just right, it could be a tremendous show with hundreds of meteors for about an hour or two centering around midnight.

PLANETARY MEETING

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Venus and Jupiter are getting closer and closer together in the early evening sky!

WHEN: Next several evenings! They will be closest to each other on November 24th (only 1.4 degrees apart). And, later this month, around November 27-28, the crescent moon will join the fun forming a triangle with the two planets. . . a Thanksgiving treat!

WHERE: Look in the southwestern sky.

SKY CONDITIONS: Since we have a few weeks to check this one out, you can bide your time and wait for the perfect evening. Starting as early as Thursday night!

LAST THOUGHTS: One more thing to note. . . the planet Saturn will also be in the southwestern sky at the same time, but a good distance above and to the left of the other planets.

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