While summer’s supermoons and meteor showers are winding down, the autumn season ushers in a new crop of night sky events, beginning with the perennial favorite, the aurora borealis.
For countries as far north as Alaska, Iceland, and Norway, the aurora-borealis season begins this month. Even while it’s impossible to know when you’ll be lucky enough to view the aurora, that’s part of the adventure, and there are techniques to increase your chances of doing so. The odds of viewing the lights increase when you go somewhere with a phrazle clear night sky and little to no light pollution. It’s true that apps like Space Weather Live and My Aurora Forecast are among of the best forecasters of the northern lights, but nothing beats keeping an eye on the sky without leaving the comfort of your bed.
But that’s not all the September sky has to offer. Next up, we have a planet-spotting expedition and NASA’s historic asteroid-collision project. Here are the finest ways to appreciate the night sky in the northern hemisphere this month.
Watch the sky on September 14 if you’re in Africa, Asia, or Europe to see a rare planetary conjunction: the moon will pass in front of Uranus. This is a rare opportunity to see a lunar occultation (the precise word for one object passing in front of another), which is normally difficult to observe from Earth’s surface due to the moon’s closeness to the Earth. The map below, provided by In-the-Sky.org, will show you when and where you may view it.
The Earth will enter the void between Neptune and the sun on September 16. When a planet is in opposition to the sun, it is at its closest distance from the star (called perigee). The outcome, as reported by SeaSky.org, is that Neptune will shine brighter than ever before. Even with sophisticated telescopes, the distant planet will seem as a tiny blue dot, but it is still worth going outside to have a look at the frigid world.
At 9:04 p.m. EDT on September 22, autumn arrives in the northern hemisphere. That’s a good omen for stargazers, since it means the days are becoming shorter and the nights are growing longer. If seeing the northern lights is on your bucket list, and September’s equinox is one of the most active aurora times, then now is the time to start making travel arrangements.
Cinch your seatbelts as On September 26 we will see something out of a science fiction novel: According to NASA’s website, the space agency will conduct its first mission to deflect an asteroid. The DART spacecraft, scheduled for launch in November 2021, will crash with a harmless asteroid as part of the mission known as the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). There’s a serious purpose to our previous random destruction of cosmic debris. This is an experiment to see whether this method can effectively alter the path and speed of any asteroids that could one day threaten Earth. If you’re interested in the latest NASA news and livestreams, be sure to follow their social media profiles.
Jupiter will be in opposition in the constellation Pisces starting in the evening of September 26. As stated on In-the-Sky.org, Jupiter reaches its zenith around midnight EST. At this time, it will be at its closest to Earth, so get your binoculars out and have a look.
The Juno spacecraft has been in orbit around Jupiter since 2016, and NASA decided to prolong the mission last year. On September 29 of this year, Juno will pass by Jupiter’s moon Europa, which, according to a CNET story, may be the greatest spot in our solar system to detect clues of extraterrestrial life. According to Forbes, it will fly just 354 kilometers (221.2 miles) over Europa’s surface. Similarly to the beginning of 2021, this event will likely offer astounding photographs of the earth. These images will be used to better plan future Jupiter expeditions.
