Skywatching: Planets, A Solar Sail And Observe The Moon Night

Space.com

Skywatching: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Also, a solar sail streak across the night sky and more!  Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Transcript

00:00What's up for September?

00:04Five planets and a supermoon eclipse, a NASA solar sail that you can spot from the ground,

00:11and a global night for the Moon.

00:14Stick around till the end to view some highlights shared in last month's video.

00:19Starting with the visibility of the planets this month, you'll notice Venus sitting

00:23very low in the west in the hour following sunset.

00:26Over the next several months, it will rise higher, increasingly becoming a fixture of

00:30the early evening sky for the rest of the year.

00:34Saturn's in the southeastern sky early in the evening.

00:37From there, it'll be visible overhead all night, and you'll find it setting in the

00:40west as dawn approaches.

00:42As for the ongoing pair-up of Jupiter and Mars, Jupiter's rising around midnight or

00:47soon after, with Mars rising an hour to an hour and a half behind it.

00:51So it's best to look for them high in the south, southeastern sky in the early morning

00:54before sunrise.

00:56And in morning twilight during the first week of September, if you can find an unobstructed

01:00view toward the east, it's a decent opportunity to spot Mercury for those in the northern

01:05hemisphere.

01:06Turning now to the Moon, the full moon on September 17th is a supermoon, meaning it's

01:11just a little bit closer to Earth in its orbit than your average full moon.

01:15It looks ever so slightly bigger and brighter, though in practice the difference is hard

01:19to see.

01:20It really is super, though, as the September full moon is often called the Harvest Moon

01:25given its association with harvest time in the northern hemisphere.

01:28Plus, it's going to show us a partial lunar eclipse.

01:32You'll see a little bite taken out of one side of the Moon over about an hour.

01:36Check the timing of the eclipse for your local area using your favorite sky-watching app

01:40or website.

01:41In Europe, the eclipse takes place in the early morning hours, while in the U.S. it's

01:45in the evening, and that's while the Moon's rising for the west coast.

01:49As for moon-planet pair-ups, the Moon leads Saturn across the sky on the 16th.

01:54Look for the pair in the southeastern sky following sunset.

01:58For those in the U.S., the pair will appear very close together early the next morning

02:02on the 17th as they get lower in the western sky.

02:05In fact, those in the western half of the U.S. can actually watch the Moon start to

02:09occult or pass in front of Saturn before they set.

02:13On the 22nd, the Moon rises a couple of hours after dark, sitting super close to the Pleiades.

02:19This is kind of a special pairing if you're in the U.S., as the Moon will actually pass

02:22right through the Pleiades over the course of the night.

02:26So if you have binoculars or a small telescope, you can look periodically over the course

02:30of the night as the Moon crosses directly in front of the bright star cluster.

02:35On the 23rd, the Moon rises in the late evening hours with giant Jupiter.

02:39They climb high into the southeast sky as dawn approaches.

02:43And then on the morning of the 25th, the crescent Moon appears near Mars.

02:47This last full week of September is really lovely before the sky brightens as you have

02:51the Moon and two bright planets together with the bright stars of the winter constellations.

02:56So don't miss it!

02:59There's a new opportunity to observe a bright NASA spacecraft sailing across the night sky.

03:05NASA's Advanced Composite Solar Sail System, or ACS-3, is a small satellite that's testing

03:10new technologies in low-Earth orbit.

03:13It recently deployed its 30-foot-wide solar sails.

03:17These are a means of propulsion that could allow small spacecraft to sail on sunlight.

03:22The ACS-3 solar sails are highly reflective and make the spacecraft appear nearly as bright

03:28as Sirius, the brightest star in the sky.

03:31You can find out when the solar sail spacecraft will pass over your location using the NASA

03:36app on your mobile device.

03:39International Observe the Moon Night is September 14th.

03:43It's an annual event when fellow Moon enthusiasts come together worldwide to participate in

03:47events and, you guessed it, observe our nearby natural satellite.

03:52You can join from wherever you are, attend or host a virtual or in-person event, or simply

03:57observe the Moon from home.

03:59On the 14th, in addition to many lunar maria and all six of the Apollo landing sites, this

04:04year offers an opportunity to see the Marius Hills, volcanic domes and cones that are notoriously

04:10difficult to observe even with a telescope unless sunlight is streaming across them nearly

04:15horizontally.

04:16Fortunately, that will be the case on International Observe the Moon Night 2024 when we'll get

04:21to watch a lunar sunrise across this knobby terrain.

04:25So, however you pronounce it, grab your telescope or find an event near you and join this annual

04:31celebration of observation.

04:35Here are a few views of highlights in last month's sky.

04:49And here are the phases of the Moon for September.

04:53Stay up to date on NASA's missions exploring the solar system and beyond at science.nasa.gov.

04:59I'm Preston Dyches from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and that's What's Up for this month.

05:05NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

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