{"id":559,"date":"2020-08-30T19:41:26","date_gmt":"2020-08-30T19:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/?p=559"},"modified":"2020-10-01T03:43:08","modified_gmt":"2020-10-01T03:43:08","slug":"september-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/september-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"September 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Moving<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mercury\nis a horizon hugger this month. Try to see it in the west just after\nsunset. It won’t be easy. You’ll probably need binoculars or a\ntelescope to see it against the sunset’s light. The planet doesn’t\nmake much of a journey into the night sky this orbit, so you’ll have\nto settle for finding it when it’s not very dark. A thin crescent\nmoon and Spica nearby will help you find the planet on the 18th<\/sup>.\nA clear horizon and a clear sky are a must. Buildings, trees, and\nclouds easily block the view of Mercury so close to the horizon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mercury,<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jupiter\nand Saturn are still nearly stationary just east of Sagittarius. Look\nsouth in the evenings or southwest a little later. For now, the two\nplanets are holding about the same angular distance from each other.\nBut next month, you’ll see that Jupiter is creeping toward Saturn. In\nDecember, they’ll have a super close conjunction just 0.1\u00b0 apart.\nStart watching them now and savor what is to come!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jupiter<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mars\nrises in Pisces in mid-evening. It will stay there all month, moving\nkind of back and forth between the fish close to where they’re\nconnected. First it’s going eastward (direct motion). The planet is\nmoving slowly enough by the 8th<\/sup>,\nsome astronomers would say it’s stationary. But a few nights later,\nit’s moving westward (retrograde motion) fast enough to almost cross\nthe line of stars in the other fish by the end of the month. Mars\nwill cross the line and then travel along the length of the western\nfish toward its head getting almost halfway there before it turns\naround in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mars<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The moon passes in front of Mars on the 6th. Visibility for the occultation is in South America. It goes from southern Ecuador to central Chile on the west coast to Suriname to a place in southern Brazil on the east coast. It’s also visible in a wide path across the Atlantic Ocean toward the Cape Verde Islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"WinOccult<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Venus\nis a morning object, leaving Gemini as September starts. It moves\nquickly into Gemini, passing south of Asellus Australis on the 14th<\/sup>.\nThe planet then rushes toward Leo for a rendezvous with Regulus on\nOctober 2nd<\/sup>\nand 3rd<\/sup>.\nThe two will be just 0.1\u00b0 apart at their closest. Best viewing will\nbe from the Pacific and Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Movement<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The\nmoon’s phases this month: full on the 2nd<\/sup>,\nlast quarter on the 10th<\/sup>,\nnew on the 17th<\/sup>,\nfirst quarter on the 24th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmoon’s declination’s this month: goes north of the equator on the\n4th<\/sup>,\nnorthern lunistice at 24.4\u00b0 on the 12th<\/sup>,\non the equator going south on the 18th<\/sup>,\nand southern lunistice 24.5\u00b0 on the 24th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmoon is at apogee on the 6th<\/sup>\n405,600 km or 252,000 miles from the earth, center-to-center. Perigee\nis on the 18th<\/sup>\nat 359,000 km or 223,100 miles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mars\nhas its southern solstice on the 2nd<\/sup>.\nMercury is at aphelion on the 19th<\/sup>\nat 0.467 astronomical units from the sun. Earth’s equinox is on the\n22nd<\/sup>\nat 13:31 UT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notable\nconjunctions in September:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3rd<\/sup>\n\u2013 Neptune and the moon 3.9\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6th<\/sup>\n\u2013 Mars and the moon 0.0\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7th<\/sup>\n\u2013 Uranus and the moon 3.1\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9th<\/sup>\n\u2013 Moon and Aldebaran 4.1\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

13th<\/sup>\n\u2013 Moon and Pollux 4.3\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

14th<\/sup>\n\u2013 Venus and the moon 4.4\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

15th<\/sup>\n\u2013 Moon and Regulus 4.1\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

19th<\/sup>\n\u2013 Mercury and the moon 5.9\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

22nd<\/sup>\n\u2013 Mercury and Spica 0.3\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

25th<\/sup>\n\u2013 Jupiter and the moon 2.3\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

25th<\/sup>\n\u2013 Saturn and the moon 2.3\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

30th<\/sup>\n\u2013 Neptune and the moon 3.9\u00b0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mercury is a horizon hugger this month. Try to see it in the west just after sunset. It won’t be easy. You’ll probably need binoculars or a telescope to see it against the sunset’s light. The planet doesn’t make much of a journey into the night sky this orbit, so you’ll have to settle for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-59","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":568,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559\/revisions\/568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}