The Sky This Week - Thursday August 30 to Thursday September 6

The Last Quarter Moon is Monday, September 3.  4 bright unaided eye planets can be seen in the evening sky. Venus is high in the early evening sky and is at its closest to the bright star Spica. Jupiter is past opposition, but is still big and bright in telescopes. Saturn and Mars are visible in the evening skies. Mars is past opposition but is still bright and big in even small telescopes.

The Last Quarter Moon is Monday, September 3.

Evening twilight sky on Saturday September 1 looking west as seen from Adelaide at 19:21 ACST (90 minutes after sunset). Venus is high above the horizon and is at its closest to Spica. Jupiter is now high in the western sky as well.

The insets shows  simulated telescopic views of Venus as seen with a 5mm telescopic eyepiece and Jupiter on Wednesday the 5th as Io, Ganymede and Io's shadow pass over Jupiter's face at 21:54 ACST (Jupiter will be quite low by then).

 Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen).

Brilliant Venus is visible high in the evening until well after full dark. Venus is visible to the unaided eye from before sunset, easy to see shortly after sunset and can viewed well after 90 minutes after sunset. During the week Venus is at its closest to the bright star Spica .

Whole sky view of the evening sky on Saturday September 1 as seen from Adelaide at 19:21ACST (90 minutes after sunset).  Four bright planets are visible in the evening sky.

Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at the equivalent local time (just after 90 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen).

Evening sky on Saturday September 1 looking north  as seen from Adelaide at 19:21 ACST (90 minutes after sunset). Saturn and Mars are clearly visible. The insets are simulated telescopic views of Saturn and Mars as seen with a 5mm telescopic eyepiece.

Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen).

Binocular view of Saturn on Saturday September 1 looking east  as seen from Adelaide at 19:21 ACST (90 minutes after sunset). Saturn is in the same binocular field as the Triffid and Lagoon Nebulae.

Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen).

 Venus  is  readily visible above the horizon in the early evening.  It is bright enough to be visible from just on sunset and to well past 90 minutes after sunset at full dark, when it is two and a half hand-spans above the horizon.  Venus is at its closest to the bright star Spica on Saturday the 1st of September.

Mercury is deep in the twilight in the morning skies and very difficult to see.

Jupiter  is high in the early evening sky above the western horizon. It was at Opposition on the May 9th, and is still visible most of the night. It is  a good telescopic object in the early evening and is setting around 11:30 pm local time. There are some good Jovian Moon events this week, although they will be close to the horizon. This week Jupiter continues to move away from the bright star alpha Librae (Zubenelgenubi).

 Mars is in Capricornius and is readily seen in the evening. Mars was at opposition last month on July 27th,  when it was biggest and brightest as seen from Earth. This was the best opposition since 2003. However Mars will remain bright and large in even small telescopes for some time. In a telescope you may see a few features as the huge dust storm sweeping the planet continues to subside.  A guide to observing Mars at the time is at my Mars Opposition page.

Saturn is now high in the northern evening sky in the early evening, and is a good telescopic object in the mid to late evening sky. It was at opposition, when Saturn is biggest and brightest as seen from Earth, on June the 27th. It is within binocular range of  the Trifid and Lagoon nebulae. ow that the Mon has eft the evening sky this will be an excellent sight in binoculars.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/