Excuse Me While I Kiss the Sky -- Month of September 2024

Posted by Guy Pirro | 09/05/2024 05:03AM | Comments

Welcome to the night sky report for September 2024 -- Your guide to the constellations, deep sky objects, planets, and celestial events that are observable during the month. During the month you will have an opportunity to view five planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn), as well as a supermoon eclipse and a NASA solar sail satellite. In September, Pegasus becomes increasingly prominent in the southeastern sky, allowing skywatchers to locate globular clusters M2 (NGC 7089), M30 (NGC 7099), as well as a nearby double star, Alpha Capricorni, which is an optical double (but not a binary pair). Also, if you have access to dark skies away from urban light pollution, you might be able to get a glimpse of the faint, glowing pillar of the zodiacal light, which is sunlight reflecting off of an interplanetary dust cloud between Earth and the inner fringes of the main asteroid belt, just past Mars. The night sky is truly a celestial showcase. Get outside and explore its wonders from your own backyard.