September Sky

 

Last month's Perseid meteor shower lived up to its expectations of up to 100 per hour in the Moonless sky!  In this picture you can see one 'shooting' through Cygnus and the Milky Way.   

Image by Graham Green

The Planets

Mercury makes its appearance this month as it passes through inferior conjunction on the 3rd.   It will be best seen before sunrise on the morning of the 19th as it reaches its greatest western elongation.   Mercury brightens from mag +0.5 to -1.1.

Venus isn't well positioned for viewing and will be low in the western evening sky this month.

Mars isn't too far from Venus and thus will also be too low to observe.

Jupiter rises in the East at dusk.   Unmistakably visible all night at a bright mag -2.9 Jupiter sits in the constellation of Pisces and is at opposition on the 21st.

Saturn is no longer visible as it heads towards the Sun.   It will re-appear in the morning sky in November.

Uranus -now is a good time to locate this gas giant as it lies 0.8° to the north of Jupiter.   On the night of the 18/19th, Uranus will be in conjunction with Jupiter.   Difficult to see with the naked eye Uranus is easily seen with a pair of binoculars at a magnitude of +5.7.

 

Comets

Better placed than June's apparition of comet C/2009 R1 McNaught, comet 103P/Hartley passes almost overhead during the month.   As September progresses the comet brightens from mag+9.0 at the beginning of the month to +6.0 as it heads to its perihelion (closest to the Sun) in October.  

To see this 6.4 year periodic comet this month, you will need to use binoculars or a telescope.   103P/Hartley heads from the northern part of the constellation of Andromeda in the direction of the 'W' of Cassiopeia.   A couple of stars will make it easier to locate the comet; in the early hours of the 9th close to the mag +3.6 star Omicron Andromedae and on the night of the 29/30th the mag +4.7 star Lambda Cassiopeiae.

 

Moon - Watch    

New Moon: 8th September      Full Moon: 23rd September

Moon-rise on the 1st is accompanied with the Pleiades open star cluster at 2° to the north of the Moon .   The sliver of the waning crescent Moon rises on the morning of the 7th near the star Regulus.   The full Moon rises and rides with Jupiter on the 22nd.

The Sun

Equinox on the 23rd - day and night are equal as the Sun crosses the celestial equator.

This month's sky is composed by Graham Green.

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