Podcaster: Ralph & Paul
Title : Awesome Astronomy’s September Sky Guide
Organization: Awesome Astronomy
Link : www.awesomeastronomy.com
Description: What to look out, and up, for in September: a full round up of the skies with en emphasis on the ice giant planets, our pick of the moon’s features and the deep sky objects on offer in Andromeda and Cassiopeia
Bio: Awesome Astronomy is the show for anyone and everyone who has even the slightest interest in astronomy and science.
Join Ralph & Paul at the beginning of each month, for an informative and fun astronomy programme telling you what to look out (and up) for every month. You can be guaranteed a passion for astronomy, simple explanations of complex and fundamental topics, space and science news, absorbing interviews and listeners’ astronomy questions answered.
As both presenters have been accused of being a little skeptical in the past, you can also expect everything to be frivolous but fact-based
Today’s sponsor: This episode of “365 Days of Astronomy” is sponsored by — no one. We still need sponsors for many days in 2013, so please consider sponsoring a day or two. Just click on the “Donate” button on the lower left side of this webpage, or contact us at signup@365daysofastronomy.org.
Transcript:
Yes, finally September is here! With Sunset in Berlin, Toronto, London & New York around 8pm on the first of the month and around 6.30pm on the 30th, we’re finally getting back to the long dark nights with the only downside being the need to dig out that coat and hat you’ve forgotten about in the long balmy summer evenings. This month we start with the moon which presents a couple of nice observation opportunities. The first to mention is a daytime occultation of the Star Spica. Bright stars are visible during the day in a telescope, especially outside of the brighter summer months and in this case using the moon you should be able to locate Spica on September 8th when the darkside of the thin crescent of the 3 day old moon will pass in front of the star at around 1450 BST 1350 UT and reappear from behind the sunlit crescent at about 1600BST 1500 UT. This is an excellent opportunity to see a star in the day, witness an occulation and get a sense of the moons passage though the sky. The one word of warning though is in regard to the Sun, which of course will be close by so do not inadvertently swing your scope or binoculars in that direction, it at all possible stand in the shadow of a building or thick tree.
The moon this month is also presenting a very favourable libration and will give lunar observers the chance to glimpse some far-side craters towards the end of the month such as Hale on the 16th and Humboldt on the 20th. Also worth looking out for are Pythagoras and Pascal which are truly monumental craters, Pythagoras measuring 80 miles across while Pascal comes in at almost 70.
We have new moon on the 5th and reach full moon on the 19th.
Moving on to the Planets, it is a good time to have a look at our most distant neighbours Neptune and Uranus, which will both be high in the sky through September and with Neptune having just passed opposition at the end of August and Uranus approaching opposition in October both planets are essentially as close as they will be all year and with them in the neighbouring constellations of Aquarius and Pisces respectively, can easily be seen in a short observation session. With both planets unless you are lucky enough to have a large aperture scope there is not much to see, except small bluegreen planetary discs, but you will be able to see they are definitely not stars and the knowledge that you are looking at these distant worlds from your back yard is rewarding.
Mars and Jupiter continue to improve in the early hours, with Jupiter in Gemini especially getting high before dawn and presenting us with almost 40 arcseconds of disc by the end of the month. Mars still has a long way to go before its a serious observation target but in lieu of surface details and a wide disc Mars will spend the first part of the month passing through Cancer and will provide a fantastic imaging and observation opportunity as it passes through the open cluster M44 between the 7th and 10th. The beehive cluster M44 is a stunning in its own right but with the addition of this pink-red interloper it promises to be one of September’s unmissable sights, though you will need to be an early riser to catch it with Mars and the beehive not rising above the horizon until after 3am at latitude 51 degrees. With sunrise at about 620 am you will need to be quick.
Venus is still not brilliantly placed this month but it should be an easy visual target after sunset blazing away at -4.1 magnitude but caught up in the glow and haze of the evening it is still not giving us much to look at. We start September with a phase just over 70% and this reduces towards 60% as we begin october.
Mercury is lost in the suns glow this month while Saturn is still just visible around sunset but is a difficult object to look at and is essentially lost to us until the winter.
Moving onto the universe beyond the solar system September presents us with an interesting transition period, with many of summers attractions still in the sky but now in the west and not up all night, while in the east the parade of autumn and winter constellations is rising and for the early risers looking east before dawn you will see Taurus and even Orion. Pegasus and Andromeda start to dominate the sky as the month goes on and while Galaxies M31, 32 and 110 are always worth a look don’t forget to look out for M33 Galaxy in the nearby constellation of Triangulum. This galaxy is also part of our local group and while a large target it is notoriously hard to see. Moving back to Andromeda, do look out for one of my favourite planetary nebulas, NGC 7662 the Blue Snowball. Not n easy object to locate, being away from the main body of the constellation, but well worth the effort. Another object which is a good test of patience in Andromeda is Mirach’s Ghost, or Galaxy NGC 404. It is a galaxy about 10 million light years away, thought to be just beyond our own local group and is a difficult object to observe or image because of its proximity to the star Mirach, which at 2nd magnitude tends to overwhelm its dimmer neighbour, hence the name Mirach’s ghost.
The real star of September has to be Cassiopeia which is well placed in the sky and with the milky way running through it this is a constellation packed with clusters including M52 and 103 and NGC663, while NGC 457 is one of the most amusing objects in the sky, nicknamed the ET, owl or bat cluster- you decide. Of interest to those with bigger scopes are two more members of the local group of galaxies, the lesser know elliptical dwarfs NGC 185 and 147 which are gravitationally bound to M31. For the double star fans remember to turn your scopes on to the brightest star of cassiopeia Shedir, while eta and iota Cassiopeiae are a double and triple respectively, while variable watchers are spoilt with Gamma, delta and Rho Cassiopeiae all being variables of different types.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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