Astroblog: September 2023

The Full Moon is Friday, September 29. Mars is very low in twilight. Saturn is visible in the evening sky. Saturn is past opposition, but still bright and a good telescope object. Jupiter is rising before midnight but is still best in the morning sky, it is close to the Moon on October 1. Venus climbs higher in the morning twilight coming close to the bright star Regulus by week's end. Daylight savings starts October 1.

The Full Moon is Friday, September 29. The Moon is at perigee, when it is closest to Earth, on the 28th.

Evening sky on Saturday, September 30 as seen from Adelaide at 19:43 ACST (90 minutes after sunset), Saturn is above the north-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).

Evening sky on Sunday, October 1 as seen from Adelaide at 23:00 ACDST. Jupiter is above the horizon near the Moon. The inset is the telescopic view of Jupiter at this time.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (an hour before local midnight).

Morning sky on Saturday, September 30 as seen from Adelaide at 05:06 ACST, (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Venus is rising higher in the morning twilight. The inset is the telescopic view of Venus at this time.

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

Evening sky on Saturday, September 30 as seen from Adelaide at 19:13 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).

Whole sky on Saturday, Saturday, September 23 as seen from Adelaide at 19:37 ACST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). Saturn is rising in the east.

Scorpius and Sagittarius are readily visible below the zenith.

Between the bright star Canopus and the Southern Cross are another wealth of binocular objects to discover. The waxing 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 returns to the morning twilight.

Venus climbs higher in the morning twilight and cones close to Regulus.

Mars is dimming and is difficult to see close to the horizon.

Jupiter is rising before midnight but is still prominent in the morning sky.It is close to the Moon on October 1.

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

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 1:39 am 0 comments

The First Quarter Moon is Saturday September 23. Mars is low in twilight. Saturn is visible in the evening sky and is close to the Moon on the 27th. Saturn is 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. Venus climbs higher the morning twilight. Comet 2023 P1 (Nishimura) may be visible low in the twilight.

The First Quarter Moon is Saturday September 23. The Moon is at perigee, when it is closest to Earth, on the 28th.

Evening sky on Wednesday, September 27 as seen from Adelaide at 19:41 ACST (90 minutes after sunset), Saturn is above the eastern horizon near the waxing Moon. 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 Saturday, September 23 as seen from Adelaide at 04:40 ACST, (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Jupiter is above the horizon near the Hyades and Pleiades. The inset is the telescopic view of Jupiter at this time.

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

Morning sky on Saturday, September 23 as seen from Adelaide at 05:10 ACST, (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Venus is rising higher in the morning twilight. The inset is the telescopic view of Venus at this time.

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

Evening sky on Saturday, September 23 as seen from Adelaide at 19:07 ACST, 60 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). Mars is low above the horizon. Comet 2023 P1 (Nishimura) may be seen in binoculars below Mars if it survives its passage around the Sun.

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

Evening sky on Saturday, September 23 as seen from Adelaide at 18:38 ACST, 30 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). Mars is low above the horizon. Comet 2023 P1 (Nishimura) may be seen in binoculars below Mars if it survives its passage around the Sun. Printable spotters charts are here.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (30 minutes after sunset).

Whole sky on Saturday, Saturday, September 23 as seen from Adelaide at 19:37 ACST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). 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 waxing 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 climbs higher the morning twilight.

Mars is dimming, and coming closer to the horizon. Comet 2023 P1 (Nishimura) may be seen in binoculars below Mars if it survives its passage around the Sun.

Jupiter is rising before midnight but is still prominent in the morning sky.

Saturn is past opposition, but is still bright and a worthwhile telescopic object. Saturn is close to the Moon on the 27th.

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

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 11:27 pm 0 comments


Path of comet C/2023 P1 in the eastern morning sky from 20 September on. B&W chart suitable for printing. The image is at nautical twilight 60 minutes before sunrise.	Comet C/2023 P1 in the western evening sky sky on 22 September.The image is at nautical twilight (60 minutes after sunset).

A recently discovered "bright" comet C/2023 P1Nishimura, has been putting on a nice display in the northern hemisphere's telescopes. The comet is currently too close to the sun for us in the Southern hemisphere, it will come closest to the sun (0.225 au, closer than Mercury) on 17 September and if it survives, will soon grace our skies.

How bright it will be is an open question, it may reach magnitude 2or 3, but will be too close to the sun for us to see. In Australia (and the Southern Hemisphere generally), it is disappointingly close to the horizon, never getting particularly high at nautical twilight.

You will need a unobstructed, level western horizon, like the ocean or the desert, in order to see it. If we are really lucky and the comet gets seriously bright, we may be able to see the head from the 18th, low above the horizon deep in civil twilight (30 minutes after sunset) If the comet only gets reasonably bright, we may see it's tail sticking up above the horizon at nautical twilight.

Of course, it may also fizzle completely, but until we look, we don't know. So here's hoping.

form around 4 October te comet, rapidly fading, sinks back into the twilight and is lost to view.

Labels: binocular, C/2023 P1, comet

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 10:10 pm 0 comments

The New Moon is Friday September 15. Mars is sinking lower in the late twilight. The thin crescent Moon forms a triangle with Mars and the bright star Spica on the 17th. Saturn is visible in the evening sky 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. Venus climbs higher the morning twilight.

The New Moon is Friday September 15.

Evening sky on Saturday, September 16 as seen from Adelaide at 19:31 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 Saturday, September 16 as seen from Adelaide at 04:51 ACST, (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Jupiter is above the horizon near the Hyades and Pleiades. The inset is the telescopic view of Jupiter at this time.

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

Morning sky on Saturday, September 16 as seen from Adelaide at 05:19 ACST, (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Venus is rising higher in the morning twilight. The inset is the telescopic view of Venus at this time.

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

Evening sky on Sunday, September 17 as seen from Adelaide at 19:02 ACST, 60 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). Mars is low above the horizon. The thin crescent Moon forms a triangle with Mars and the bright star Spica.

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

Whole sky on Saturday, September 16 as seen from Adelaide at 19:26 ACST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). 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 new Moon is ideal for seeing fainter objects.

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

Mercury is lost in the twilight.

Venus climbs higher the morning twilight.

Mars is dimming, and coming closer to the horizon. The thin crescent Moon forms a triangle with Mars and the bright star Spica on the 17th.

Jupiter is rising before midnight but is still prominent in the morning sky.

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

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 11:18 pm 0 comments

The last Quarter Moon is Thursday September 7. Mars is visible in the late twilight. Saturn is visible in the evening sky 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. Venus climbs higher the morning twilight and is near the thin crescent Moon on the 12th.

The last Quarter Moon is Thursday September 7. The Moon is at apogee, when it is furthest from the Earth, on the 13th.

Evening sky on Saturday, September 9 as seen from Adelaide at 19:26 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 Saturday, September 9 as seen from Adelaide at 05:02 ACST, (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Jupiter is above the horizon near the Hyades and Pleiades. The inset is the telescopic view of Jupiter at this time.

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

Morning sky on Tuesday, September 12 as seen from Adelaide at 05:26 ACST, (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Venus is rising higher in the morning twilight and is above the thin crescent Moon. The inset is the telescopic view of Venus at this time.

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

Evening sky on Saturday, September 9 as seen from Adelaide at 18:57 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).

Whole sky on Saturday, September 9 as seen from Adelaide at 19:26 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 climbs higher the morning twilight and is near the thin crescent Moon on the 12th.

Mars is dimming, and coming closer to the horizon.

Jupiter is rising before midnight but is still prominent in the morning sky.

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

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 10:23 pm 0 comments