Your Final Chance To See The Milky Way As ‘King Of Planets’ Peaks: The Naked Eye Night Sky This Week
Each Monday I pick out the northern hemisphere’s celestial highlights (mid-northern latitudes) for the week ahead, but be sure to check my main feed for more in-depth articles on stargazing, astronomy, eclipses and more.
What To See In The Night Sky This Week: September 19-25, 2022
This is one of the best weeks of the year to go stargazing. No, really! The Moon is waning to a crescent and nowhere to be seen unless you’re out really late into the early hours. The arc of the Milky Way is visible in the southwest right after sunset—if you’re under an inky black dark sky—and will soon disappear into the horizon. Perhaps it’s still shirt-sleeve weather where you are. The stars, clusters and nebulae of summer are still visible while winter’s celestial jewels are beginning to creep into the night sky.
Oh, and there’s a bonus view of Jupiter—the “king of planets”—at its brightest and best of the year as it heads for its annual 100%-lit “opposition” next Monday.
This week also sees a new season ushered in by Earth’s changing place in space.
When is fall equinox?
At precisely 01:04 UTC on Friday, September 23, 2022 it’s the fall or autumnal equinox. It marks the point when the midday Sun is directly above the equator, giving every location on the planet 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness.
The Sun will rise due east, follow an arc right along the celestial equator and set due west. It’s also known as the southward equinox.
The bright star Capella in the constellation of Auriga taken from France.
Star of the week: Capella, the ‘Goat Star’
The stars of winter are coming.
Look low in the northeast after dark and you’ll see a very bright star rising. That’s Capella, the “golden star”—the brightest in the constellation of Auriga (the “charioteer”) and the sixth-brightest star in the night sky. Look to its right and you’ll also clock the Pleiades star cluster. Wait a while and Mars will rise beneath it around midnight .
“Rapidly spinning globe. Symbolic of time passing, travel and other metaphors of space and time.”
Object of the week: Our rotating planet
Mars is rising in the east after dark this month. All planets and stars rise in the east. The Moon also rises in the east. That’s because Earth is rotating from west to east so the stars are gradually revealed as the night wears on.
You’re on the night-side of Earth, so you’re looking away from the Sun and into the outer Solar System. That’s why you can see Mars, Jupiter and Saturn—the “outer” planets. As the night wears on, the stars—and the planets—will rise higher above the eastern and southern horizons, while the stars in the west will sink down to the western horizon. That’s why people get confused by the stars; they are constantly moving but, of course, they’re really not moving perceptibly—it’s us on Earth that are rotating that makes the stars appear to move.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
