1 week Ago
Each Monday, I pick out North America’s celestial highlights for the week ahead (which also apply to mid-northern latitudes in the northern hemisphere). Check my main feed for more in-depth articles on stargazing, astronomy, eclipses and more. The Night Sky This Week: Sept.
23-29, 2024 This week’s stargazing highlights include a waning gibbous moon and Jupiter, and the crescent moon near the stars of Gemini. Come the weekend there could be a chance to see a crescent moon close to a naked eye comet this weekend. Now that’s a rare sight, though it will mean rising very early.
Here’s everything you need to know about the night sky this week: Monday, Sept. 23: Moon And Jupiter Look east-northeast just before midnight wherever you are, and you’ll see the pretty sight of a 56%-lit waning gibbous moon to the left of Jupiter. Above the pair will be the Pleiades open cluster of stars and bright star Capella in the constellation Auriga, “the charioteer.
” Tuesday, Sept. 24: Last Quarter Moon Today, we will see a Last-Quarter (or Third-Quarter) Moon, which will appear half-illuminated and rise around midnight. The moon’s rising and setting times shift later by about 50 minutes each night, which means this weekend will feature moonless nights ideal for stargazing.
Wednesday, Sept. 25: Lyra And Vega Look up after dark, and you’ll see the constellation Lyra, sinking into the southwest horizon. Vega dominates this small constellation.
It’s the star by which all others are judged. The fifth brightest star in the night sky and about 25 light-years away, this blue star is a yardstick for judging stars’ apparent magnitude or brightness. If a star is dimmer than Vega, it gets a (+) figure; if it’s brighter, it gets a (-) figure.
Vega forms one corner of the “Summer Triangle,” a seasonal asterism (a recognizable shape, not an official constellation) together with Deneb in Cygnus, above, and Altair in Aquila, to the left. Thursday, Sept. 26: Moon In Gemini Rise 30 minutes before sunrise, and in the southeastern night sky, you’ll see a 33%-lit waning crescent moon close to the bright star Pollux in Gemini, with the other “twin” of Gemini, Castor, close by.
At 34 and 51 light-years distant, respectively, these star systems are in the sun’s neighborhood. Pollux is a single giant star nine times the sun’s radius with one confirmed exoplanet in orbit, while Castor is actually a star system with six stars. Mars and Jupiter will also be visible in the same region of the night sky, close to the easily recognizable three stars of Orion’s Belt.
Friday, Sept. 27 And Saturday, Sept. 28: A Naked Eye Comet Appears? Today, comet A3 (also called C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) will reach its perihelion —the closest it will get to the sun—when it should reach its brightest.
It could be visible just above east-southeast an hour before sunrise. However, comets are famously hard to predict. Although it's expected to become visible to the naked eye, it could brighten significantly or fade to nothing.
It could still reach magnitude 1, as bright as the 20 brightest stars in the night sky. Sunday, Sept. 29: Moon, Regulus And The Comet The brightest star in the constellation Leo, Regulus, is one of the four bright stars often closely visited by the moon.
Look due east at about 6:00 a.m. to see it just a couple of degrees from a lovely 9%-lit waning crescent moon, with comet A3 visible close to the horizon below.
Object Of The Week: The Northern Lights Thought May 10 ’ s sudden solar “superstorm” was never-to-be-repeated? With the sun now predicted to reach its “solar maximum” in late 2024, there’s a decent chance of seeing aurora across the planet (known as the Northern Lights in the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Lights in the Southern Hemisphere). As August and September arrive, the nights get longer, maximizing the chances of aurora sightings. It’s also often said that the northern (and southern) lights are strongest around the equinoxes when our planet’s magnetic field is best aligned with the solar wind’s.
That makes the weeks around September 22’s fall equinox worth penciling in either for a trip to the Arctic Circle (to Alaska or far northern Europe) or to have a dark sky site in mind to drive to if another rare show of global aurora is predicted. The times and dates given apply to mid-northern latitudes. For the most accurate location-specific information, consult online planetariums like Stellarium and The Sky Live .
Check planet-rise/planet-set , sunrise/sunset and moonrise/moonset times for where you are. Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes..
