Astroblog: Thursday September 28 to Thursday October 5

Wednesday, September 27, 2023

Thursday September 28 to Thursday October 5

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