Taipei Astronomical Museum

As the season enters late autumn, the starlight grows ever more brilliant. The five brightest planets in the solar system will sequentially appear in the night sky, accompanied by celestial phenomena such as Mercury's eastern elongation, the Leonid meteor shower, and Uranus opposition. The November night sky is bustling with activity!On November 16 (Saturday), Mercury will reach its greatest eastern elongation, with an angular distance of 22.6 degrees from the sun and a brightness of -0.3 magnitude. It will appear on the western horizon after sunset, with an altitude of only about 14 degrees. Given the low elevation, it is recommended to find an unobstructed location on the western horizon. After twilight fades, look near the lower right of Venus, the brightest object in the western sky, to spot Mercury's bright presence. If you use an astronomical telescope to zoom in, you can see both Mercury and Venus appearing as crescent shapes, which is quite unique.The peak of the Leonid meteor shower will occur on November 17 (Sunday), with an estimated zenithal hourly rate (ZHR) of only 10—much lower than the thousands observed during the 2001 Leonid meteor storm. This year, the peak coincides with the full moon, meaning moonlight will impact the visibility of meteors. It is suggested to observe the eastern sky with the moon positioned behind you after the radiant rises early the next morning for a better chance to see sporadic meteors.November 17 (Sunday) also marks the opposition of Uranus this year. At this time, Uranus will be in the constellation Taurus, with a brightness of 5.6, which is at the threshold of naked-eye visibility. Due to its apparent diameter being only 3.8 arc seconds—less than 1/500 of the full moon—an astronomical telescope is needed to observe it. Through the telescope, Uranus will appear as a small bluish-white disk. To give everyone a chance to see Uranus, the Taipei Astronomical Museum will open its large 45-centimeter research telescope at 7:00 PM on November 16 (Saturday), bringing this rotating gas giant over 2.78 billion kilometers away into view.Besides Mercury and Venus, November is also an excellent time for observing other bright planets. Saturn, with a brightness of about 0.9 magnitude, can be seen in the southern sky after sunset. A lunar occultation of Saturn will occur on November 11 (Monday); unfortunately, it will not be visible in Taiwan. On that day, Saturn will be seen near the right side of the moon after sunset. The brightness of Jupiter and Mars is also increasing, reaching magnitudes of -2.7 and 0, respectively. These two bright planets will reach opposition on December 8 (Sunday) and January 16 (Thursday) next year. For more detailed celestial information, please visit the Taipei Astronomical Museum’s website.

Black holes are probably the most extraordinary objects in the cosmos: they can be born in violent explosions of very massive stars, they warp spacetime around them, they devour stars, and they generate gravitational waves detectable on Earth. We think that black holes of different sizes exist, from tiny and rapidly evaporating monsters to millions of solar masses in the centers of galaxies. Black holes continue to be at the edge of our knowledge; unravelling its mysteries is one of the most exciting challenges in human history, a challenge that will require all our capacities as a species and that will help us in our mission to understand the past, present, and future of this exciting place we call the cosmos. This film is a 32-minute production produced by Double Dome Films. Screening Date: July 2, 113 to June 30, 114Duration: about 32 minutesTrailer 

All life on Earth is connected by a great mystery we are only just beginning to unravel. Hidden between the world of plants and animals, another world exists…Fungi. We’ll begin in the mysterious world of the forest floor, where fungi are the central players in nature’s story of birth, death, and rebirth to discover that life as we know it simply would not exist without them. Join acclaimed British biologist, Dr. Merlin Sheldrake, on a quest to find an incredibly precious blue mushroom, against the backdrop of Tasmania’s ancient Tarkine rainforest. Merlin will show us some the grandest and strangest organisms ever discovered, showcased through jaw-dropping time-lapse cinematography, in a landscape largely unchanged from the time of the dinosaurs. With millions more species to discover, our journey into the secret world of fungi has only just begun.Screening dates: April 4, 2024 to April 3, 2025