Sights abound in the Thanksgiving night sky

Once you’ve had your fill of parades, turkey, and football, bundle up the family for some sky watching. Clouds that have dominated our weather this week will move out, leaving clear skies behind for Thanksgiving Day.

HST can also be seen without a telescope but is much smaller and dimmer as a result. HST's orbit also never brings it any farther north than central Florida, which means it never rises very high into the North Carolina skies. Thursday, HST will rise shortly before 6:13pm in the southwest. Two minutes later, look directly below Venus about the width of three fingers held at arms length for a moving dot. HST will continue moving right to left before disappearing five minutes later into Earth’s shadow.

Orion the Hunter, my favorite constellation, will be visible in eastern sky all night, rising around 8 p.m. Find the three stars in Orion’s belt – Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka – and look to the right for a fuzzy patch of light, the Orion nebula. This diffuse nebula is so bright that it’s visible with the naked eye even in the suburbs. It is made up of gas and dust that may give birth to a new star millions of years from now.