In November, like the weather, our evening sky is transitioning from summer to winter.

The summer triangle is setting in the west; and the seven sisters, rising in the east, herald the coming winter constellations.

But right in the middle of them, directly overhead, is the Andromeda Galaxy.

It’s next to the constellation Andromeda.

"It's 2.5 million light years away which is quite distant, and so, the light that's traveling towards us from Andromeda left right before the Ice Ages started," says Chris Janssen, director of the planetarium at Wausau West High School.

It may only appear as a small dot to the naked eye, but with some help, you might see just how big it is.

"In fact, if you had a really good night, and you had a pair of binoculars or a really good telescope, it's seven times wider than the full moon," says Janssen.

But there's a brighter object headlining our night skies: it's a comet called Holmes.

It's big news because in late October, it grew one million times brighter over a couple of days, making it visible to the naked eye.

Astronomers are still uncertain how that happened, but according to skyandtelescope.com, it could remain about that bright through mid-November.

To see it, look northeast at the sideways “W” of Cassiopeia, and then look to the right and down just a bit, and it'll be on the left side of the constellation Perseus.

With binoculars or a telescope, you'll be able to see some of the dust and gas around it, but you probably won't see a huge tail, because it’s facing away from Earth.

The Leonid meteor shower will cause the night sky to glisten a bit on November eighteenth, but it’s not a shower for those with little patience—its meteors will be few and far between, with only 5 to 15 of them per hour—but if you have the time and don’t mind the cold, take a look!

Late in the evening, Mars will keep getting brighter in the eastern sky, so keep watching it...a bit of a surprise is coming in December.

And for the early risers, Saturn and Venus will sparkle in the east in the hours before sunrise.

If you’d like “directions” to some of these constellations and planets, you can get a star map by clicking on the appropriate link below the line at the bottom of this article, and then clicking on "star map".

A diagram showing the location of Comet Holmes in Perseus can be seen at NASA'S Website by clicking on the appropriate link below the line at the bottom of this article.