Skywatch Line for Friday, September 6, through Sunday, September 8, written by Sam Salem
This is Dudley Observatory’s Skywatch Line for Friday, September 6, through Sunday, September 8, written by Sam Salem.
On Friday, Sun rises at 6:26am and sets at 7:20pm; Moon rises at 9:50am and sets at 8:41pm.
On Friday, Venus can guide you in evening twilight, to the slender waxing Moon, about 30 minutes after sunset. The ecliptic, or path of the Sun, Moon and planets, slants low to the horizon at this time of year as seen from the Northern Hemisphere. Venus and the Moon will be to the left of the sunset point. Binoculars can help you find the pair in the fading twilight.
On Friday evening, the Moon will lie closer to Spica, the brightest star in the constellation of Virgo the Maiden.
As dawn in getting under way on Saturday, Mercury poses low over much fainter Regulus, heart of the Lion in the constellation Leo. On Monday morning, Mercury and Regulus will be in conjunction, 0.5° apart, low in the east-southeast by east.
Watch for Mercury shortly before sunrise, just above the place where the Sun will rise. Mercury’s greatest elongation, greatest distance from the sunrise, was on Thursday, September 5.
On Sunday at nightfall, the crescent Moon shines low in the southwest. Look almost two fists upper left of it for orange Antares. Two thirds of the way from the Moon to Antares is the near-vertical row of three stars marking the head of Scorpius. The brightest of these three is the middle one, Delta Sco. It’s not all that much fainter than Antares.
The zodiacal light, aka false dawn or dusk is a hazy pyramid of light. It’s sunlight reflecting off dust grains in the plane of our solar system. You need a dark sky to see it. Look east before dawn from about late August through early November. The best time to look is in a moonless sky, especially around a new Moon close to the September equinox.
Earth will fly between the Sun and Saturn on Sunday, placing the ringed planet at opposition, opposite the Sun, in the sky. That’s the best time to watch Saturn. The planet rises in the east at sunset and is visible all night. For the rest of 2024, Saturn will remain visible in the evening sky. It’ll finally disappear in the sunset glare in February 2025.
Late these evenings as autumn approaches, Fomalhaut, the Autumn Star, makes its appearance above the southeast horizon. Watch for it to come up two fists to the lower right of Saturn. By 11 p.m. you should have no trouble spotting Fomalhaut low in the southeast if you have a view in that direction.
Mars and Jupiter, magnitudes +0.7 and –2.3, respectively, in the constellation of Taurus, continue pulling apart from each other in the early-morning sky. Watch for bright Jupiter to rise in the east-northeast around midnight. Mars, much fainter, follows nearly an hour later, glowing to Jupiter’s lower left. Mars forms a triangle with the horn-tips of
Taurus, Beta and Zeta Tauri. Watch the triangle change shape daily as Mars moves eastward against the stars.