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It’s been an eventful summer for skygazers, with a full solar eclipse, the Perseids meteor shower and a nearly full lunar eclipse taking center stage. The fall season is coming soon, but there are a few things for skygazers to see this coming month before we’re officially in apple cider and hoodie weather.
September starts on a bit of a whisper but gets going relatively quickly. Here’s what’s coming up for amateur astronomers, from moon meetups and meteor showers to constellations and asterisms.
Meteor showers: Sept. 1 and Sept. 20
Taurids and Aurigids are minor meteor showers, so they’ll likely show off one meteor at a time, even during their peak.
National Park Service/Brad Sutton
September hosts two meteor showers, with one finishing at the beginning of the month, and the other starting at the end of the month.
The Aurigids meteor shower is a minor meteor shower that starts toward the end of August and is fueled by the C/1911 N1 Kiess comet. It lasts about four or five days and peaks on the evening of Sept. 1.
It’s visible by looking at the Auriga constellation, which is the radiant of the Aurigids meteor shower, or the point at which the meteors appear to originate in the sky. It rises from the northeastern horizon shortly after midnight on Sept. 1.
The other meteor shower in September is the Southern Taurids. This is one of the longest meteor showers of the year, lasting exactly two months from Sept. 20 to Nov. 20. It’s fueled by the 2P/Encke comet, which is the same entity that fuels the Northern Taurids. The Northern Taurids start in October.
The Southern Taurids won’t peak until early November, so you’ll have to wait until then to see most of the meteors. Even so, you may see a stray meteor in the late September skies now and then. Both Taurids meteor showers have what are called “swarm years” when they’re much stronger. The next such year is predicted to be 2032.
The meteors appear to originate from the Taurus constellation. It rises from the eastern horizon shortly after 1 a.m. in late September, and is right next to the Ariga constellation.
Moon and planet meetups: Sept. 7, 8, 12 and 14
The moon is going to be pretty close to almost every visible planet in the night sky in September over the span of eight days.
The fun starts early in the morning on Sept. 7, when the moon and Mars are set to streak across the sky together. It starts shortly after 3 a.m. local time when both objects come up over the northeastern horizon. The moon follows Mars across the sky the remainder of the night, so if you can see one, you can quickly find the other.
When the moon rises the next morning on Sept. 8, it’s going to be followed by Jupiter, making both quite easy to see right next to each other.
The most challenging one is Mercury and the moon. Those two meet up right at sunset on Sept. 12, and you’ll only have a few minutes to spot both in the sky before they sink below the horizon.
Finally, the moon meets up with Venus on Sept. 14-15, again right at sunset and shortly after.
These are fairly common occurrences as the moon lines up with planets all the time, but meeting up with all four in the span of about a week is pretty cool and worth checking out.
The clearest skies: Sept. 11
Daniel Reinhardt/Getty ImagesSkygazers often enjoy the full moon because they get the best possible view for telescopes and general enjoyment. However, the new moon on Sept. 11 is also important for visibility.
A new moon is the first lunar phase when it sits directly between Earth and the Sun, making the lunar disk invisible from our planet. The moon is the single largest source of light pollution in the sky, so when it’s not there to drown out your subject, you might be able to view stuff in the sky that’s usually harder to see.
That said, other skygazing tips still apply. The moon may be gone, but if you’re in a suburb or a city, light pollution there will still hinder your ability to see fainter objects in the sky. The moon will remain barely noticeable for a few days before and after Sept. 11, so you have a weeklong window before the moon starts getting too bright again.
Venus at its brightest: Sept. 18
There are two days a year when Venus is at its brightest, and one of them is in September. The planet is visible in the western sky along the horizon just after sunset local time, and it’s pretty hard to miss unless your view is obstructed by trees or buildings. This is the brightest Venus gets while it’s in the evening sky, and makes for a simple skygazing activity.
The other date when Venus is at its brightest is Nov. 29, but this time in the morning sky. Either way, Venus is following the sun, so your best bet is to see it just after sunset in September and just before sunrise in November to see it at its brightest.
Fall equinox: Sept. 22
This year, fall officially begins on Sept. 22, and the equinox starts at 8:05 p.m. ET. At this time, when the sun passes through Earth’s celestial equator, astronomers and scientists mark the beginning of the next season. The day should be roughly 12 hours from sunrise to sunset for the entire Northern Hemisphere, which is why we call it the equinox.
Unlike meteor showers or full moons, you can’t see anything in the sky. However, it does mark the changing of the season, which is celebrated in a variety of different ways. It’s the start of apple cider, bonfire and hoodie season, and many people consider it the start of the Halloween season.
Neptune at opposition: Sept. 25
Opposition is a fancy astronomy term that means a planet has drifted as close as it can to Earth along its orbit. Amateur astronomers enjoy these events because it makes these planets easier to see in the night sky. Neptune is sketchy to find even on the best of days since it’s so far away, but during opposition, it’s getting a full face of sunlight, making it easier to see than normal.
Neptune is situated between Saturn and the moon in the night sky on Sept. 25. It rises out of the eastern sky just after sunset and streaks across the sky until setting along the western horizon at sunrise. Since it’s just one day before the full moon (see below), light pollution could make Neptune challenging to see. Take a telescope or some high-powered binoculars, and you should be able to find it more easily.
Harvest moon: Sept. 26
September’s full moon occurs on Sept. 26, with full illumination happening at 12:49 p.m. ET. That’s in the middle of the day, so the brightest you can see the moon is the prior morning before sunrise or the next evening after sunset. If you can’t see it on those days, it’ll be over 90% full for a few days before and after the full moon date.
September’s full moon is usually called the corn moon. However, the full moon closest to the autumn equinox is always called the harvest moon. Since this one is only a few days off, September’s full moon gets the honors this year. This year’s harvest moon is the second-to-last normal full moon of the year before the rotation of supermoons begins again in November.
Constellations and asterisms: All month
September begins the transition from summer sky to autumn sky, and so the constellations are coming in and out.
You’ll have several constellations to look for, including Cygnus, Lyra, Aquila, Pegasus, Capricornus, Aquarius and Cassiopeia. The Big and Little Dippers (officially called Ursa Minor and Ursa Major) are also there, along with minor constellations like Cepheus and Delphinus.
Most of these are visible for the entire month, but the summer ones like Cygnus, Lyra and Aquila are going to get progressively lower in the sky until they sink below the horizon, which means September is your last chance to see them until next year. Some, like Bootes, are already well on their way out, so the end of September will look different from the beginning.
Some minor asterisms like the Summer Triangle, the Teapot, the Northern Cross and the Coathanger are also visible for portions of September. All of those should give you plenty to look for in the night sky.
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