As the Northern Hemisphere prepares for winter, the nights are getting colder and longer, even as our terrestrial landscape is getting bleaker since most of our colorful leaves have fallen. There will be several interesting highlights this month, including Jupiter at its best for the year, Venus returning to our evening sky, a comet still getting brighter, and even a little asteroid that will buzz Earth at less than the distance to the moon.

With the passing of Steve Jobs last month, we have all been thinking about the way that computers and the Internet have transformed our lives. The information highway has had profound effects on the ease and speed with which birders can communicate.