Observing Calendar for September / October – By Steve Woodbridge

Sky Diary — By pcburns on September 10, 2009 at 1:24 pm

Observing Calendar

September 8th to October 12th 2009 (all times BST)

by Steve Woodbridge

FAS is pleased to present the highlights of the August sky prepared by Steve Woodbridge. There are also several opportunities to see the ISS (click here for details).

Date
Sept 8th-9th	Io occults (2321) and eclipses (0039) Europa
Sept 13th	Moon rises after midnight, thus giving dark evening observing.
Sept 16th	Venus 3 degrees north of the moon. Venus is 12″ in size and showing a gibbous phase. It will be magnitude -3.8. Try seeking it out in the daytime using the moon as a guide (it culminates at close to 10am)
Sept 16th	Io occults Europa (0142)
Sept 17th	Mars rises before midnight. At 6″ in size, it should be starting to show some features in moderate scopes at high power now.
Sept 17th	Saturn in conjunction with the sun, and consequently unobservable during the period of these notes.
Sept 17th	Uranus at opposition in Pisces near the star Flamsteed 20. Can you spot any of its moons (the brightest is Titania at magnitude 13.7)?
Sept 18th	New Moon
Sept 21st	Europa occults Ganymede (0145)
Sept 22nd	Autumnal equinox. After this there is more time dark than light.
Sept 22nd	Fomalhaut culminates at midnight. At magnitude 1.1 and -29.6 degrees declination it is the most southerly star obviously visible from the UK. North and west of Fomalhaut you may like to seek out the giant Helix planetary nebula in Aquarius (NGC 7293). This is a bright but low-surface brightness object, so aided by nebular filters. Any images or drawings welcome, although I suspect this will be a difficult object from southern England.
Sept 26th	Jupiter culminates at 10pm (thus making it very easy to observe at civilised times of night). I have enjoyed starting to observe it in my new 120mm refractor (yes, I have a telescope at last!). Has anyone managed to capture the new comet/asteroid impact site on an image?
Sept 27th	Moon sets after midnight.
Sept 29th	Neptune culminates at 10pm amongst the stars of Capricorn.
October 3rd	Io eclipses Europa (2119)
October 4th	Full Moon
October 6th	Mercury at greatest elongation West. This is the most favourable morning apparition of this year. If you look below Denebola at dawn (6am) you should pick it up 4.5 degrees up due east at magnitude -0.5 even with the naked eye. Its diameter is 7″.
October 10th	Io occults (2144) and eclipses (2343) Europa
October 12th	Moon rises after midnight