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September’s night sky is putting on one of its best shows of the year, and you do not need a telescope for most of it. The month features brilliant Venus at its best, the Milky Way’s hazy core overhead, and the seasonal turning point of the equinox, all capped by a glowing Harvest Moon rising near Saturn at month’s end.
The lineup
Venus dominates the early evening as the brightest planet, easy to spot low in the sky shortly after sunset. Point binoculars at it in the coming weeks and you can even catch its phase, which shrinks from a half-moon shape toward a slim crescent as the month progresses.
Look up and away from city lights, and the Milky Way’s glowing band stretches across the sky, with its densest and brightest region, the galactic center, still well placed in the early evening. September is one of the last comfortable months to see it before it slides toward the horizon for the year.
The equinox, on September 22-23, marks the moment the Sun crosses the celestial equator: day and night stand nearly equal everywhere on Earth, and the season officially turns.
The grand finale
The month closes with the Harvest Moon, the full moon nearest the equinox, rising famously close to Saturn. The pairing makes for an easy observation: find the glowing moon, and the steady, pale yellow point of light nearby is the ringed planet, no equipment required.
Wait about 30 minutes for your eyes to adapt, get away from direct streetlights, and look up. The sky does the rest.
Featured image: Harvest Moon rising over a football field, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0). Source: ScienceDaily.
