Astroblog: Thursday August 31 to Thursday September 7

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

Thursday August 31 to Thursday September 7

The Full Moon is Thursday, August 31. This is both a "blue" Moon and a perigee syszgy ("super') Moon. The last Quarter Moon is Thursday September 7. Mercury is lost in the twilight. Mars and Saturn are visible when the sky is fully dark. Saturn is just past opposition, but still bright and a good telescope object. Jupiter is is rising before midnight but is still best in the morning sky making a wide triangle with the Pleiades and Hyades. On the morning of the 5th Jupiter is close to the waning Moon. Venus returns to the morning twilight.

The Full Moon is Thursday, August 31. This is both a "blue" Moon (the second full Moon of the month) and a perigee syszgy ("super') Moon, the best this year. The last Quarter Moon is Thursday September 7.

Evening sky on Saturday, September 2 as seen from Adelaide at 19:21 ACST (90 minutes after sunset), Saturn is above the eastern horizon. The inset is the telescopic view of Saturn at this time.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset).

Morning sky on Tuesday, September 5 as seen from Adelaide at 05:06 ACST, (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Jupiter is above the horizon near the Hyades and Pleiades. Venus is low above the eastern horizon. Jupiter is also close to the Moon. The insets are the telescopic views of Jupiter and Venus at this time.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes before sunrise).

Evening sky on Saturday, September 2 as seen from Adelaide at 18:51 ACST, 60 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). Mars is low above the horizon.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes after sunset).

Evening sky on Thursday, August 31 as seen from Adelaide at 19:17 ACST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). The Full Moon is just above the horizon, official full moon was at 12:00pam on and Perigee at 2:00 am. This is the best Perigee Moon of the year.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset).

Whole sky on Saturday, September 2 as seen from Adelaide at 19:21 ACST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). Mars is visible low above the north west. Saturn is rising in the east.

Scorpius and Sagittarius are readily visible near the zenith.

Between the bright star Canopus and the Southern Cross are another wealth of binocular objects to discover.The waning Moon will make the fainter objects hard to see though.

Elsewhere in Australia will see a similar view at the equivalent time (90 minutes after sunset).

Mercury is lost in the twilight.

Venus returns to the morning twilight.

Mars is dimming, and coming closer to the horizon.

Jupiter is rising before midnight but is still prominent in the morning sky. Jupiter is close to the waning Moon on the 5th.

Saturn is past opposition, but is still bright and a worthwhile telescopic object.

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