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

M73 (NGC 6994) has got to be the least inspiring of the 110 Messier Objects. It is a simple four star asterism at an average distance of 2500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Aquarius. M73 is a controversial Messier object since the stars have been proven to have no relationship to each other. They are not an Open Cluster. They are simply a random pattern of stars in the night sky – An Asterism. [Video and Content Credits: NASA, the Office of Public Outreach – Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and JPL Caltech: Preston Dyches, Christopher Harris, and Lisa Poje, with subject matter guidance provided by JPL’s Bill Dunford and Lyle Tavernier, and the Night Sky Network’s Kat Troche] [Image Credit: Fred Herrmann, Astromart Gallery Contributor - https://www.astromart.com/gallery/user/11 ]

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

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.

Starting with the visibility of the planets this month, you'll notice Venus sitting very low in the west in the hour following sunset. Over the next several months it will rise higher, increasingly becoming a fixture of the early evening sky for the rest of the year. Saturn is in the southeastern sky early in the evening. From there it'll be visible overhead all night and you'll find it setting in the west as dawn approaches.

As for the ongoing pair-up of Jupiter and Mars, Jupiter rises around midnight or soon after, with Mars rising an hour to an hour and a half behind it. So it's best to look for them high in the south-southeastern sky in the early morning before sunrise. And in morning twilight during the first week of September, if you can find an unobstructed view toward the east, it's a decent opportunity to spot Mercury for those in the Northern Hemisphere.

Turning now to the Moon, the full moon on September 17th is a supermoon, meaning it's just a little bit closer to Earth in its orbit than your average full moon. It looks ever so slightly bigger and brighter, though in practice, the difference is hard to see. It really is super though, as the September full moon is often called the "Harvest Moon" given its association with harvest time in the Northern Hemisphere, plus it's also going to show us a partial lunar eclipse.

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

Check the timing of the eclipse for your local area using your favorite skywatching app or website. In Europe, the eclipse takes place in the early morning hours; while in the US, it's in the evening – and that's while the Moon's rising, for the West Coast.

As for Moon-planet pair-ups, the Moon leads Saturn across the sky on September 16th.

Look for the pair in the southeastern sky following sunset. For those in the US, the pair will appear very close together early the next morning on the 17th, as they get lower in the western sky. In fact, those in the western half of the US can actually watch the Moon start to occult, or pass in front of Saturn before they set.

On the 22nd, the Moon rises a couple of hours after dark sitting super close to the Pleiades. And this is kind of a special pairing if you're in the US, as the Moon will actually pass right through the Pleiades over the course of the night. So if you have binoculars or a small telescope, you can look periodically over the course of the night as the Moon crosses directly in front of the bright star cluster.

On the 23rd, the Moon rises in the late evening hours with giant Jupiter. They climb high into the southeast sky as dawn approaches.

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

This last full week of September is really lovely before the sky brightens, as you have the Moon and two bright planets together with the bright stars of the winter constellations. So don't miss it!

There's a new opportunity to observe a bright NASA spacecraft sailing across the night sky. NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System, or "ACS3," is a small satellite that's testing new technologies in low Earth orbit. It recently deployed its 30-foot-wide solar sails.  These are a means of propulsion that could allow small spacecraft to “sail on sunlight.” The ACS3 solar sails are highly reflective, and make the spacecraft appear nearly as bright as Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. You can find out when the solar sail spacecraft will pass over your location using the NASA app on your mobile device.

International Observe the Moon Night is September 14th. It's an annual event when fellow Moon enthusiasts come together worldwide to participate in events and observe our nearby natural satellite. You can join from wherever you are by attending a virtual or in-person event or simply observing the Moon from home.

On cool, moonless September mornings before dawn, you might have an opportunity to search for the zodiacal light. It's a triangular or cone-shaped pillar of faint light that stretches upward from the horizon and it's easiest to observe around the time of the equinoxes in March and September. The zodiacal light is sunlight reflecting off of an interplanetary dust cloud. This dust fills the inner solar system out to the inner fringes of the main asteroid belt, just past Mars.

As September brings the transition from summer to fall, so the sky transitions to the stars of autumn. Increasingly prominent in the southeastern sky is Pegasus, the winged horse. The Great Square of stars that outlines the body is a useful guide to the fall patterns around it.

Near the Great Square lies the sprawling pattern of Aquarius, the water-bearer. Located within the western part of the constellation is M2 (NGC 7089), one of the oldest and largest globular star clusters associated with the Milky Way galaxy. It appears as a circular, grainy glow in backyard telescopes.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has imaged the cluster, a compact globe of some 150,000 stars that are more than 37,000 light-years away. At approximately 13 billion years old, this cluster formed early in the history of the universe, and offers astronomers an opportunity to see how stars of different masses live and die. Results from ESA’s Gaia satellite suggest that this cluster, along with several others, may have once belonged to a dwarf galaxy that merged with the Milky Way.

West of Aquarius is the constellation of Capricornus, the sea goat, a figure dating back to the Sumerians and Babylonians. The star at the western end of Capricornus is Alpha Capricorni. Alpha Capricorni is an optical double but not a binary pair. The brighter star, Algedi, is about 100 light-years away. The fainter star lies along the same line of sight but is roughly eight times farther away.

The pattern hosts another globular star cluster, M30 (NGC 7099). It appears as a hazy glow in small telescopes. Stars are packed so closely in globular clusters that they can interact with each other. Binary stars can exchange partners in their tight gravitational square dance. More massive objects like black holes and neutron stars move toward the center. M30 likely started life with another galaxy that merged with our own. The globular cluster is orbiting the Milky Way in the opposite direction of most stars.

Take advantage of mild, late summer nights to enjoy the constellations and ancient globular star clusters of the September sky. The night sky is always a celestial showcase. Get outside and explore its wonders from your own backyard.

The following Deep Sky Objects are found in constellations that peak during the month. Some of the objects listed here can be viewed with binoculars or a small telescope, but the majority will require a moderate to large aperture telescope (7 inches to 12 inches in diameter) with appropriate filters, especially for many of the nebulae. The following is adapted from my personal viewing list: "The Guy Pirro 888 Best and Brightest Deep Sky Objects in the Northern Skies."

Constellation: Aquarius (AQR)

NGC 6981                    Globular Cluster          M72

NGC 6994                    Asterism                      M73

NGC 7009                    Planetary Nebula        C55, Herschel 400 H1-4 Saturn Nebula

NGC 7089                    Globular Cluster          M2

NGC 7184                    Galaxy                         P206

NGC 7293                    Planetary Nebula        C63 Helix Nebula

NGC 7492                    Globular Cluster          P208

NGC 7606                    Galaxy                         Herschel 400 H104-1

NGC 7723                    Galaxy                         Herschel 400 H110-1

NGC 7727                    Galaxy                         Herschel 400 H111-1

Constellation: Cepheus (CEP)

Caldwell 9                   HII Ionized Nebula       C9 Cave Nebula

IC 1396                        Emission Nebula         P6 Elephant’s Trunk Nebula

IC 1470                        Emission Nebula         P192

NGC 40                        Planetary Nebula        C2, Herschel 400 H58-4 Bow Tie Nebula

NGC 188                      Open Cluster               C1 Polarissima Cluster

NGC 6939                    Open Cluster               Herschel 400 H42-6

NGC 6946                    Galaxy                         C12, Herschel 400 H76-4 Fireworks Galaxy

NGC 7023                    Reflection Nebula       C4 Iris Nebula

NGC 7129                    Emission Nebula         P58

NGC 7142                    Open Cluster               Herschel 400 H66-7

NGC 7160                    Open Cluster               Herschel 400 H67-8

NGC 7226                    Open Cluster               P140

NGC 7235                    Open Cluster               P7

NGC 7261                    Open Cluster               P8

NGC 7354                    Planetary Nebula        P257

NGC 7380                    Open Cluster               Herschel 400 H77-8 Overlaps Wizard Nebula

NGC 7510                    Open Cluster               Herschel 400 H44-7

NGC 7538                    Emission Nebula         P94

NGC 7762                    Open Cluster               P141

NGC 7822                    Emission Nebula         P33

Constellation: Lacerta (LAC)

IC 1434                        Open Cluster               P159

IC 1442                        Open Cluster               P160

IC 5217                        Planetary Nebula        P230 Little Saturn Nebula

NGC 7209                    Open Cluster               Herschel 400 H53-7

NGC 7243                    Open Cluster               C16, Herschel 400 H75-8

NGC 7245                    Open Cluster               P161

NGC 7296                    Open Cluster               Herschel 400 H41-7

Constellation: Pegasus (PEG)

NGC 7078                    Globular Cluster          M15 Great Pegasus Globular Cluster

NGC 7177                    Galaxy                         P370

NGC 7217                    Galaxy                         Herschel 400 H207-2

NGC 7331                    Galaxy                         C30, Herschel 400 H53-1

NGC 7332                    Galaxy                         P288 Paired with NGC 7339

NGC 7448                    Galaxy                         Herschel 400 H251-2

NGC 7457                    Galaxy                         P173

NGC 7479                    Galaxy                         C44, Herschel 400 H55-1 Superman Galaxy

NGC 7619                    Galaxy                         P346

NGC 7626                    Galaxy                         P108

NGC 7814                    Galaxy                         C43 Little Sombrero Galaxy

For more information:

Northern Latitudes:

https://hubblesite.org/resource-gallery/tonights-sky

https://science.nasa.gov/skywatching/whats-up

https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm

https://blogs.nasa.gov/Watch_the_Skies/

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/skywatching/home/

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/explore-the-night-sky/hubble-messier-catalog/

https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/skyreport

http://outreach.as.utexas.edu/public/skywatch.html

https://griffithobservatory.org/explore/observing-the-sky/sky-report/

http://www.beckstromobservatory.com/whats-up-in-tonights-sky-2/

https://www.fairbanksmuseum.org/planetarium/eye-on-the-night-sky

http://dudleyobservatory.org/tonights-sky/

https://cse.umn.edu/mifa/starwatch

http://www.schoolsobservatory.org.uk/learn/astro/nightsky/maps

https://tonightssky.com/MainPage.php

https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/visible-planets-tonight-mars-jupiter-venus-saturn-mercury

https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/night/

https://stardate.org/nightsky

https://www.adventuresci.org/starcharts

https://www.astromart.com/news/search?category_id=3&q=kiss+the+sky&from=&to

Equatorial Latitudes:

https://heavens-above.com/SkyChart2.aspx

https://in-the-sky.org/data/constellations_map.php

https://ytliu0.github.io/starCharts/chartGCRS.html

Southern Latitudes:

https://www.scitech.org.au/explore/the-sky-tonight/

https://www.stardome.org.nz/star-charts--sky-spotter

Daily Moon Observing Guide:

https://moon.nasa.gov/moon-observation/daily-moon-guide/?intent=011

Find Astronomy Clubs, Events, and Star Parties in Your Area:

https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/

Watch Satellites Pass Over Your Location:

https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/

Astromart News Archives:

https://www.astromart.com/news/search?category_id=3&q=.

Check out some of my favorite Words of Wisdom:

https://astromart.com/news/show/words-of-wisdom-my-favorite-quotable-quotes

https://astromart.com/news/show/words-of-wisdom-my-favorite-proverbs-from-around-the-world

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