Listen: https://soundcloud.com/astrophiz/september-skyguide
Dr Ian Musgrave brings us his September SkyGuide … telling us when, where and what to look for in the evening and morning skies this month.
As usual Ian also gives us his ‘Tangent’ … this time al about Full Moons, Apogee moons and Perigee moons, and how an astrologer made a typo leading to how our understanding of ‘Blue Moons’ has been somewhat flawed
Also Ian is continuing his ‘Astrophotography Challenge’ where he presents us with not one, but a trio of achievable and challenging tasks to undertake with our cameras in September.
This month our challenge is to capture a Comet, a Nova and capturing a perigee and apogee moon with the same zoom settings, and an occultation.
Moon Phases for September
New Moon – 3 September – best for seeing the faint fuzzies and clusters
Apogee Moon furthest from Earth – 6 September
1st Quarter Moon – 11 September
Full Moon – 18 September
Perigee Full Moon is also closest to Earth -18 September
Last Quarter Moon – 25 September
Evening Sky
Venus in the evening twilight, close to thin crescent moon on the 5th, and close to Spica on the 18th.
Saturn – almost edge on in the late evening, and for those in Northern Australia north of Alice Springs, an occultation on 17 September at about 6:20 in the evening
…. and the centre of our galaxy is directly overhead this month, so when the sky is very dark this week (New Moon) and around to 25th (last quarter moon), please do get out and have a look at our magnificent Milky Way!
Morning Sky
Mercury has returned, low in the morning sky.
Saturn rising … always beautiful!
Mars is moving into Gemini, and Jupiter getting higher also prominent in the morning sky, and may be joined by Comet C/2023A3 later on in the month,
Comet C/2023A3 is closest to the sun on September 27, in the early morning if it doesn’t disintegrate, but comets are like cats … “they have tails and do as the please”
Corona Borealis still hasn’t banged, but is still expected to pop off before the end of September.
Occultation of Antares best from Perth 10-11 September
Ian’s September Astrophotography Challenges:
1. Capture the apogee and perigee with same zoom.
2. Capture the comet oround the 13th or 14th,
3. Occultation
4. Corona Borealis Nova explosion
Next Episode:
In 2 weeks, to celebrate our 200th episode, we are bringing you a sensational interview with Larissa Palethorpe, a young PhD from Edinburgh University who has discovered the most earth-like planet yet … and it’s only 40 Light years away
You’ll love Larissa and her earth-shattering research.
Keep looking up!
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