SEPTEMBER 2009–OBSERVING HIGHLIGHTS

EARTH SATELLITES:

Moon – New moon 18^TH

1^st Quarter – 26^th

Full moon – 4^th

Last quarter – 11^th

ARTIFICIAL SATELLITES:

Check out “Spaceweather.com” for the best satellite flybys.

PLANETS:

JUPITER: On September 1^st, Jupiter lies 10 degrees East of the moon at mag. of ---2.8 . You will be able to view this Giant Planet all night. You will notice two dark equational belts sandwiching a brighter equational zone if the air steadies enough you may see more subtle bands. Also look for the Great Red Spot, an atmosphere storm which is bigger than our planet. Also notice Jupiter’s four Galilean moons. Notice on September 2-3^rd IO, Callisto, Europa and Ganymede will not be seen. For about 2 hours, from 12:43 AM – 2:25 AM. Europa and Ganymede pass in front of Jupiter while IO and Callisto hide behind it. This will not happen again until the year 2019.

NEPTUNE: Look with your binoculars East in the evening near Jupiter.

URANUS: Shines at mag. 5.7 and lies due South of the circlet asterism in Pisces. To find Uranus, start at Lambda (2) Piscium then swing your binoculars about 5 degrees South to find a widely spaced pair of objects. The object on the right (West) is Uranus.

MARS: Look for Mars a little past midnight in the constellation Gemini. On Sept. 13^th, early risers will see a waning crescent moon snuggling within a couple degrees of Mars.

VENUS: On the morning of Sept. 1 - 2 , Venus appears just 1 degree South of the Beehive star cluster in Cancer the Crab. The best time to view it will be around 5:00 AM. Binoculars will offer the best views. At mag. -3.9 it easily outshines all other points of light in the sky.

MERCURY: Shines at mag. 0.7 , 10 degrees below Venus and rises more than an hour before the Sun at the end of September.

SATURN: Reappears before dawn it wont be easy to spot in the bright twilight. You would be better off waiting until October. Aurira host September top shower. On September 1^st, before dawn we may get 5 meteors per hour at its peak from the Alpha Aurisibs.

A reminder about our upcoming annual Augusta Astronomy Club event on October 17^th.The “SEED” event will be held at the Ruth Patrick Science Center in Aiken. You need to let us know what equipment you will bring, and what your Tshirt size is. Also we need to know what time you plan to attend. This event will be 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM.