Backyard Stargazer Sept. 2017
By Francis Parnell
For early risers, September’s dawn sky offers a number of interesting groupings that will be fun to view with naked eyes or binoculars.
Looking east before dawn on the 1st, you can’t miss sparkling white Venus. 45 minutes after sunset on the 1st, look for bright Jupiter 10-degrees above the west-southwest horizon; “Spica” the brightest star in VIRGO, the Virgin, gleams about 4-degrees lower left of Jupiter.
On the night of the 4th, Neptune, the fourth largest of the Gas Giants at 30,775 miles in diameter, is at Opposition, 4 light-hours (2,686,022,820 miles) from Earth. If you have a small telescope and a good star chart, you’ll find it among the stars of AQUARIUS, the Water Bearer.
Just before dawn on the 14th, look east to find elusive Mercury 11-degrees below or lower left of Venus.
45 minutes before sunrise on the 16th, spot “Regulus”, the brightest star in LEO, the Lion, 4-degrees below Venus. A few degrees below Venus and “Regulus”, look for Mercury and dim red Mars only 1/2-degree apart! This will look neat in binoculars.
On Friday the 22nd, at 4:06 p.m., the Sun is directly over the equator and Autumn officially begins in the northern hemisphere and spring in the southern hemisphere. Also on the 22nd at dusk, spot yellow Jupiter about 7-degrees to the lower right of the waxing crescent Moon in the west-southwest.
At dusk on the 26th, look west-southwest to find the waxing crescent Moon approximately 3-degrees above the ringed planet Saturn.
With Fall bringing cooler weather, and hopefully less clouds, let’s all “Keep looking up!”
Francis Parnell of Darlington has been an amateur astronomer for over 46 years, and was on the staff and helped out at the Francis Marion University Observatory from 1982 until 2006 by showing visitors “what’s out there.” With the help of a friend, Mr. Ernest Lowry, he built his own telescope in 1986. And, because of light pollution, for the last 31 years he has been advocating for the advantages of using fully-shielded lighting at night.