The Night Sky Over Guffey

Conducted by Chris Peterson, Cloudbait Observatory

September Calendar

• September 1, Aurigid meteor shower, just before dawn
• September 11, New Moon
• September 23, Autumn equinox (at 3:51 am)
• September 26, Full Moon

September Highlights

As we enter autumn, this is your last chance to see Scorpius and Sagittarius for the next few months. These famous summer constellations are low in the southern sky in the early evening. Scorpius is one of the few constellations that actually looks like its namesake, the Scorpion. Sagittarius is the Archer, but I've never been able to see that. Instead, look for a group of stars resembling a teapot- once you see Sagittarius this way, you'll never lose it again.

The bright, red star in the center of Scorpius is Antares, the heart of the Scorpion. Antares means "against Mars", as this star looks very much like Mars and is often confused for it. This month you can see Jupiter just above Antares- the brightest object in the evening sky right now. Venus is even brighter, but you need to wait until just before dawn to see it rising in the eastern sky. With binoculars you should be able to see four moons around Jupiter, lined up along each side (their positions change over just a few hours). These are the Galilean moons, named for Galileo, who discovered them when he became the first person to aim a telescope at the night sky.

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