The November skies will be poor in planets. In the twilight during the early part of the month, Jupiter and Saturn being low in altitude, comparatively little detail will be visible on either, as their positions are not favorable for observation. Mars is far over in the west, and sets early. Venus, during the first part of the month, sets at about seven o'clock; she is not a satisfying object for small telescopes, as she shows little except glare, and insists on calling your attention to every weak point of your instrument. Faultless indeed is the glass that can stand her criticism.

Mercury may be visible in the morning, about the 21st. Uranus shows nothing to a small glass, and Neptune can only be found with the help of graduated circles, and, when found, only identified with the aid of a chart showing all the stars down to the ninth magnitude, as it appears in the small glass as a star of the eighth magnitude, and only the great telescopes of the world stand any chance of raising a disc on it, or of showing its satellite.

The Moon

The November moon is new on the 11th, passes its first quarter on the 19th, and fulls on the 25th.

The moon is perhaps the most satisfactory of studies for a small telescope, as its nearness to the earth renders it the easiest of telescopic objects ; the irregularities of its surface are visible with a very low magnifying power, even a field-glass showing the prominent features, while the continual change of aspect under the varying angles of illumination gives an endless variety, and all the objects of special interest at least can be seen with a 3" glass. From the brilliancy of its illumination, the moon admits of the use of higher powers in its examination than does any of the other planets ; in fact, the principal difficulty here is in the state of the air, the "seeing," as it is called. Even on the clearest appearing nights, this will often prove to be so bad as to render hopeless the use of any except the lowest powers. But during the temperate months of the spring and autumn there are often evenings when there seems to be scarcely any limit to the power that might be used.

Vega.