[Energetic music]
[Preston] What's Up for September?
Mars on the move,
prime viewing time for Jupiter,
and a clever way to find your bearings on the equinox.
You'll find Mars hanging out high in the south
on September mornings before sunrise.
Early in the month, it's
near orange-colored Aldebaran, the eye of Taurus, the bull.
And over the course of the month,
Mars works its way
eastward from Aldebaran toward reddish Betelgeuse,
creating a sort of "red triangle" in the morning sky.
Then the Red Planet
will appear to hit the brakes and halt its eastward motion
to hang out in that triangle for the next month or so.
We'll talk about what's going on there in our October video.
On the morning of the 11th, before sunrise,
you'll find the Moon just a couple of finger-widths
from Jupiter on the sky,
making for a great viewing opportunity
to observe them together through binoculars.
Jupiter's at opposition this month,
making it visible all night under clear skies.
And it's around this time
when the planet's at its biggest
and brightest for telescope viewing.
But a pair of binoculars is enough to reveal
the giant planets four large moons
as little starlike points of light next to Jupiter.
And this month, NASA's
Jupiter-orbiting Juno spacecraft
is slated to make a special fast
flyby of one of those
icy moons, Europa, on the 29th.
The spacecraft is planned to pass a little over 200 miles
above the moon's surface,
returning images and science data.
And NASA is currently preparing its Europa Clipper spacecraft
for launch in 2024.
It's planned to make dozens of close flybys of Europa
to investigate
whether the moon could have conditions suitable for life.
Turning to the evening
sky, you'll have Saturn together
with Jupiter as your planetary companions all month long.
On the night of the ninth,
Jupiter and Saturn
escort the Moon across the sky.
You'll find the trio rising in the southeast
in the first couple of hours after dark
and gliding westward together over the course of the night.
By the end of the month, you'll find
the pair of planets is rising even earlier,
appearing in the east soon after it gets dark
with bright Jupiter hanging low in the sky.
September 23rd brings the September equinox,
which marks the start of fall in the Northern Hemisphere
and the start of spring in the Southern Hemisphere.
The equinoxes occur twice per year
when Earth's tilt with respect
to the Sun is the same for both hemispheres.
Both north and south receive the same amount of sunlight,
and day and night are briefly of nearly equal length.
And, get this: if you take note of exactly
where the Sun appears to rise and set on the equinoxes,
those points mark
the locations of due
east and due west respectively.
And that's something useful
to know for skywatchers whatever hemisphere
you happen to live in.
So take note of any buildings, tall trees, lampposts
and the like
at those places on the horizon,
and you can use them to find your bearings
when looking skyward all year long.
Here are the
phases of the Moon for September.
Stay up to date with all of NASA's missions
to explore the solar system and beyond at nasa.gov.
I'm Preston Dyches from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
and that's What's Up for this month.