Astroblog: Thursday September 9 to Thursday September 16

Monday, September 06, 2021

Thursday September 9 to Thursday September 16

The First Quarter Moon is Tuesday, September 14. Four bright planets are seen in the early evening sky. Venus and Mercury are readily visible in the evening sky. Mercury, the bright star Spica and Venus from a line in the late evening twilight. Venus is close to the thin crescent Moon on the 10th. Saturn and Jupiter are visible in the evening sky with Jupiter dominating once Venus has set. Venus is seen in the west and Jupiter in the east when the sky is fully dark.

The First Quarter Moon is Tuesday, September 14. The Moon is at perigee, when it is closest to the Earth, on the 11th.

Evening twilight sky on Friday, September 10 looking north-west as seen from Adelaide at 19:27 ACST (90 minutes after sunset). Venus is high above the horizon close to the crescent moon with Mercury below. Mercury, Venus and the bright star Spica are from a line.

The inset show the telescopic view of Venus at this time. Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen).

Evening sky on Thursday, September 16 showing the north-eastern sky as seen from Adelaide at 19:32 pm ACST(90 minutes after sunset). The waxing Moon, Saturn and Jupiter form a line in the evening sky.

The insets shows the telescopic views of Jupiter and Saturn at this time. Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset), click to embiggen.

Whole sky at 19:28 ACST (90 minutes after sunset), on Saturday, September 11 as seen from Adelaide. For bright planets can be seen in the sky.

Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset).

Mercury continues to climb rapidly in the twilight. Mercury, Spica and Venus make a line in the late evening twilight. Mercury is close to the Moon on the 9th.

Venus is visible in the early evening when the sky is fully dark. I have been able to see Venus from just after sunset and it is easily seen over 2 hours after sunset, longer if you have a clear western horizon. When the sky is fully dark you can see Venus above the western horizon and bright Jupiter above the eastern horizon. On the 10th Venus is close to the the crescent Moon. The pair fit into the field of view of a 10x50 binoculars.

Mars is lost in the twilight.

Jupiter is now rising before sunset and is readily visible when the sky is fully dark. Saturn and Jupiter form a line in the sky. Jupiter was at Opposition, when it was biggest and brightest as seen from Earth on August the 19th, and is still excellent in even small telescopes.

Saturn is now rising around well before sunrise. Saturn was at opposition, when it is biggest and brightest as seen from Earth, on August 2nd. But it is still is an excellent time for telescopic observation.On Thursday 16th the waxing Moon, Saturn and Jupiter form a line in the evening sky.

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.

Star Map via Virtual sky. Use your mouse to scroll around and press 8 when your pointer is in the map to set to the current time.

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/

Labels: weekly sky