Astroblog: Thursday September 11 to Thursday September 18

Tuesday, September 09, 2025

Thursday September 11 to Thursday September 18

The Last Quarter Moon is Sunday September 14. Mars is passing through Virgo and is close to the bright star Spica on the 13th. The contrast between blue-white Spica and orange Mars will be nice. Saturn is rising in the early evening and is the brightest object above the eastern horizon. Jupiter is readily visible in the morning twilight. The crescent Moon, Jupiter and the bright star Pollux form a triangle on the 17th. Venus is becoming harder to see deep in the morning twilight.

The Last Quarter Moon is Sunday September 14.

North-eastern twilight sky on the morning of Thursday, September 17 as seen from Adelaide at 05:18 ACST (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen).

Jupiter forms a triangle with the crescent Moon and the star Pollux. Venus is becoming harder to see low above the horizon

The inset is the telescopic view of Jupiter at this time.

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

Eastern sky on the evening of Saturday, September 13 as seen from Adelaide at 19:29 ACST (90 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen).

Saturn is rising higher above the eastern horizon. The insets shows the telescopic view at this time .

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

North-western sky on Saturday, September 13 as seen from Adelaide at 19:29 ACST (90 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen). Mars is at its closest to the bright star Spica.

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

Whole sky on Saturday, September 13 as seen from Adelaide at 19:29 ACST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen).

Mars is in the north-west near bright Spica.

Bright Achernar is rising from the Southern horizon. Scorpius is westering and the galactic core is at the Zenith.

The Southern Cross is sinking in the Southern sky. The moon is waning and the fainter clusters and nebula are becoming easier to see.

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

Mercury is lost in the morning twilight.

Venus is lowering in the morning twilight moving away from Jupiter.

Mars is lowering in the evening sky and passing through Virgo towards Spica. Mars is close to the bright star Spica on the 13th. The contrast between blue-white Spica and orange Mars will be nice.

Jupiter climbs in the morning twilight above Venus. Jupiter forms a triangle with the crescent Moon and the star Pollux.

Saturn is rising when the sky is fully dark, but is best in the late evening.

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