By Neill Simmons
The highlight of September is the planet Saturn which is visible in the East right after dark. The ringed planet stays up all night long and sets with the rising sun. Saturn is now located within the constellation Aquarius, the Water Bearer. Saturn has 146 known moons at this time with the largest being Titan, which is bigger than the planet Mercury. One of Saturn’s moons is called “Enceladus,” which is almost completely covered by water under a thick ice shell. NASA plans to send more probes to Titan and Enceladus in search of life forms.
On Wednesday, September 18, the full Super Moon will rise in the East and will partially covered by a small lunar eclipse. A lunar eclipse is when the Earth lines up between the Sun and the Moon casting a shadow on the Moon causing it to darken. A Super Moon is much nearer to Earth so that it appears larger than normal.
The planet Venus is bright this month but very low in the West. On September 5, the crescent Moon appears next to Venus which is a beautiful sight. Venus is one of the four terrestrial planets in our solar system, meaning that it is a rocky body like Earth. It is similar to Earth in size and mass. However, its surface temperature is 867 degrees Fahrenheit!
DAWN PATROL: In the early morning, the planet Jupiter, is very bright. If you look very closely, Mars is a small reddish dot near Jupiter. By the end of the month, Mercury will be easily visible completing this trifecta of planets.
Look straight up and find the three stars creating the Summer Triangle. It’s comprised of three of the brightest stars in the sky – Vega, Altair and Deneb – which are so much brighter than the stars around them that they make the triangle easy to spot. If you get away from the city lights, the Milky Way will be visible within the Summer Triangle. The Summer Triangle is not a constellation but an asterism, which is a pattern or a group of stars in the sky.
Sagittarius is a favorite September constellation. Its main stars look exactly like a teapot. Under dark skies, a dense area of the Milky Way can be seen rising in an arc just above the spout, like a puff of steam rising from a boiling kettle. Right beside Sagittarius is the constellation Scorpius. With a little imagination, you can see its stars tracing the shape of a scorpion. The brilliant red star, Antares, lies at the Scorpion’s Heart. The constellation has the shape of the letter J, with the curved bottom of the J representing the Scorpion’s curved tail.
Also in September, the famous Big Dipper or Ursa Major, is located in the north hanging by its handle. It is easy to see since the seven stars that make up this asterism are very bright. The North Star, Polaris, is located on the tip of the Little Dipper, Ursa Minor, and can be found by extending an imaginary line through the front two stars of the bowl of the Big Dipper. Polaris is the only star that doesn’t move and it is always in the north. This makes it useful in celestial navigation.
On September 11, the International Space Station (ISS) makes a very bright night sky crossing. It will come out of the west at 8:05 pm and move across the sky for seven minutes! Remember there are no blinking lights on the ISS.
In November, the ISS will have been in orbit for 26 years!
On Saturday, September 14, the Griffith Park Observatory will be hosting a Star Party with many telescopes on the front lawn. It starts at dusk and ends at 10 pm. This is a free event.
When not star-gazing, Neill Simmons is a Wealth Advisor with LPL Financial in Woodland Hills. If you have any astronomy or financial questions, he may be reached at 818-936-2626 or neill.simmons@lpl.com.
