Planets, Harvest Moon And Zodiacal Light In September Skywatching
Learn where to find Venus, Jupiter and Saturn this month. The Harvest Moon and Zodiacal Light shines as well. Night sky:
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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TechTranscript
00:00 What's Up for September?
00:04 Venus returns to the morning sky, the harvest moon, and in search of zodiacal light.
00:13 After brightening our evening skies for most of this year, Venus has now switched over
00:18 to being a morning sky object.
00:21 Look for the superheated, cloud-covered planet as a bright beacon in the eastern sky before
00:26 sunrise throughout the month.
00:28 It'll appear fairly high in the sky from the northern hemisphere, reaching 30 to 40 degrees
00:33 above the horizon by month's end, depending on your latitude.
00:36 Meanwhile, Saturn and Jupiter continue this month as easy-to-observe planets.
00:42 Find Saturn low in the southeast after sunset, with Jupiter rising a couple of hours later.
00:48 Saturn then sets a couple of hours before sunrise, leaving Jupiter to rule the sky on
00:53 its own until the sun comes up.
00:55 You'll find Jupiter together with the Moon high in the southwest before dawn on September
01:00 4th.
01:02 The full moon on September 29th will be the fourth and final supermoon of the year.
01:07 As we mentioned in last month's video, supermoons are full moons that occur when the moon is
01:12 near the closest point in its orbit around Earth.
01:15 This month's full moon is also known as the harvest moon, being the closest full moon
01:20 to the September equinox.
01:22 This is around the time when lots of crops in the northern hemisphere reach their peak.
01:27 The harvest moon provides a few days of bright moonlight right after sunset, which traditionally
01:32 helped farmers have a bit more time to bring in their crops in advance of the first frost.
01:38 On cool, moonless September mornings before dawn, you might have an opportunity to search
01:43 for the zodiacal light.
01:46 It's a triangular or cone-shaped pillar of faint light that stretches upward from the
01:51 horizon, and it's easiest to observe around the time of the equinoxes in March and September.
01:56 The zodiacal light is sunlight reflecting off of an interplanetary dust cloud.
02:01 This dust fills the inner solar system out to the inner fringes of the main asteroid
02:06 belt just past Mars.
02:08 In September, northern hemisphere skywatchers should look for the zodiacal light in the
02:12 east in the hour or so before morning twilight begins.
02:17 Southern hemisphere observers will want to look to the west in the hour following evening
02:21 twilight.
02:22 Relatively dark skies give you the best chance to observe it, and the moon will be absent
02:27 from pre-dawn skies during the latter half of September, making zodiacal light easier
02:32 to spot north of the equator during that time.
02:35 Now most of this dust orbits the Sun in the same plane as the planets do, so it's like
02:41 looking out into the disk of the solar system.
02:44 Astronomers thought to have several potential sources, including comets, the planet Mars,
02:49 and asteroids.
02:51 And speaking of asteroids, we'll soon have opportunities to study one here on Earth when
02:56 NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission delivers its samples from asteroid Bennu this month.
03:02 The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected a sample of rocks and dust from the surface of the
03:06 near-Earth asteroid in 2020, and it's now approaching Earth to return them for study.
03:12 As it nears Earth, the spacecraft will release its sample return capsule, which will land
03:17 in Utah on September 24.
03:22 Here are the phases of the moon for September.
03:25 Stay up to date with all of NASA's missions to explore the solar system and beyond at
03:30 nasa.gov.
03:31 I'm Preston Dyches from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and that's what's up for this
03:36 month.
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