In less than two months we'll be welcoming 2016, and with the end of the year comes also the latest sign of Chinese Horoscope: the friendly and good-natured Pig, which in this case comes with two meteor showers and an interesting grouping of planets at dawn ^_^

The month of the pig begins on November 8, and will last until December 6, it will be a time where things may go more slowly than usual, and the natural tendency will be to enjoy the extra time without forcing things, is not a good time to be in a hurry, and if you work hard and focus on the present moment without worrying too much about future, things should go well.

Also during this month there will be a tendency to half made things, I mean without going too much in depth, overlooking some details here and there... but the trend is for people around us to not give much importance to it; in particular, is not a good month to be demanding or pursuing conflict with others.

In the time governed by the pig, when trying to force things, create conflicts or walk in a hurry... the result is often unpredictable, but rarely good, and often the aggressive hidden side of the pig surfaces, like when something or someone who looks gentle and peaceful is provoked repeatedly and it turns out that when angry, it can be very destructive.

In short, it is a favorable time to enjoy life in a simple way maybe taking advantage of the long, cold nights to come together around the fire (or heating) and share positive thinking.

Furthermore, the astronomical highlight of November will be an event where Jupiter, Venus and Mars come close together before dawn, you have to look in an East-Southeast direction, and it will look something like this:

The truth is that it is quite striking and probably more than one has already noticed it in the morning sky during late October dawns, it used to be always 2 stars close together and very bright on the East sky.

So, in early November, Jupiter, Mars and Venus will form a straight line with Regulus; Jupiter is the one above, and Venus and Mars will appear very close together, with Venus the brightest, about 200 times more than Mars.

And on November 7 a thin crescent Moon should be very close to Venus and Mars (in the above chart can barely be seen), that will be the ideal time to take pictures ;-) the following day Venus and Mars will begin to separate gradually.

But apart from the pig and the planets at dawn, there will be many other things during this month of November:

• On the 4th, the Taurids: a meteor shower formed by small fragments of Comet Encke, which is one of the brightest and with shortest period (3 years) that are known. As the name suggests you have to look toward the constellation of Taurus to try to see shooting stars.
• The 11 will be the new moon, it is a good time to see the stars for the sky is darker than when there is moon light.
• From 14 to 21 November will be the meteor shower called Leonids, these are especially swift, bright meteors, and though its name suggests that we must look towards the constellation of Leo to try to see them, in practice they are somewhat unpredictable (pig style) and can appear in most of the sky.
• The 23 is the perigee, when the Moon is at its closest point to Earth, which almost coincides with the full moon, which is on 25, so this full moon will be quite large, as in recent months.
• Afterwards, on November 26 the Chinese festival of water lanterns will take place, during this day it's traditional to make paper lanterns shaped like a flower and then set them adrift in a stream, like a creek or river.
  

  It is also customary to make offerings to the ancestors, of whom it is said that tonight can visit us.

• And to finish the month, on November 30, there is a conjunction of Saturn relative to Sun and Earth, it's easier to understand with this graph:
  

Also in the picture above you can see why at dawn Jupiter, Mars and Venus appear so close together in the sky as I said at the beginning of this article.

At an astrological level it's a curious situation, for almost a cross between Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Neptune and Earth is formed... we will have to keep an eye these days to see what happens or which influences are felt ;-)

Otherwise, I hope that the month of the pig bring us many warm and happy things, one of the virtues of this sign is just that, giving joy to those who need it when they least expect it...