Dark Sky News
September 2024
September meeting: Thurs. Sept. 26
Click here for the SAS Picture of the Month (September 2024)!
Click on these links to see interesting facts about these less popular constellations:
Best time for dark sky object hunting and astrophotos!
Saturn reaches opposition tonight and shines at magnitude +0.6 for most of the month. Look for it low in the east-southeast after sunset. By midnight, the bright planet will be fairly high in the southern sky.
Also, all this month, watch for moon transits!
On September 17-18, 2024, there will be a partial lunar eclipse. During this event, the Moon will pass near the center of the Earth’s shadow, but not directly through it. Instead, it will graze the edge of the Earth’s dark umbra. The umbra is the darkest part of the shadow and has a distinct, sharp rim. However, during this eclipse, only about one-twelfth of the Moon’s diameter will be within the umbra (at most).
| Moon enters penumbra: 8:41 p.m. EDT |
| Moon enters umbra: 10:12 p.m. EDT |
| Mid-eclipse: 10:44 p.m. EDT |
| Moon leaves umbra: 11:52 p.m. EDT |
| Moon leaves penumbra: 12:47 p.m. (Sept. 18) EDT |
If you’ve never seen the Chinese space station Tiongong, now’s your chance! It will be going from west to east directly overhead starting at @ 7:12PM EDT, taking about 6 minutes to traverse the sky. It will be magnitude -2.2 (a little brighter than Jupiter right now) and pass just south of Lyra (Vega) above your head.
All of these will be as bright as Venus!
- Sept. 12 @8:23PM-8:28PM : SW to NE
- Sept. 13 @7:33PM-7:40PM : SW to NE
- Sept. 28 @7:55PM-8:00PM : NW to SE
- Sept. 29 @7:05PM-7:11PM : NW to SE
See www.heavens-above.com for more details!