What’s Up in the Night Sky? – September 2023

Fred Barrett | Sep 06, 2023

Have you seen the pictures coming from the Webb Space Telescope? They are stunning, fantastic and filled with new and unforeseen scientific information. I caught a picture of the Whirlpool Galaxy on the news this morning and heard that the information that that beauty contained was 10 times better than that from the Hubble – astonishing and more Big Bang for your buck! I’ll have more on the Webb next month.

The giant planets Jupiter, and especially my favourite, Saturn, are prime viewing targets this month. Saturn is up all through the night and is perfect during late evening. In early September you can find it near the eastern horizon soon after sunset. By midnight it has risen to its highest point in the south.

By late month, it reaches that point some 2 hours earlier in the evening. A telescope view presents a 9 degree tilt of the rings’ sunlit northern side early in the month and that increases to 10 degrees by month’s end. Take note of the dark, thin Cassini Division that separates the outer greyish ‘A’ ring from the brighter inner ‘B’ ring. A binocular viewing treat occurs on the 26th when a gibbous Moon is about 3 degrees below Saturn. There is a nice bunching of six of Saturn’s largest moons about its disk on September 29th . The best view is around midnight. On the east side is Dionne with Iapetus a little above. On the west, close in, is Mimas with Enceladus, Rhea and Titan rising up and away and higher to the south.

Jupiter rises in the east about 10pm in early September. It comes up earlier each evening as the month progresses and by month’s end, it has reached 20 degrees high in the southeast. It’s equatorial bands and Great Red Spot storm are ever changing as it rotates quickly through a day in less than 10 hours. Watch the movement of the Galilean moons ever changing in their orbits. Look for the shadows of their passing as they cross in front of the planet’s disk.

Venus is a brilliant morning gem about an hour before dawn in the east. On September 11th a thin crescent Moon hangs about 10 degrees up and to the left of its bright disk with the Beehive Cluster 4 degrees to the right of the Moon.

Mars is very low in the west just after sunset but doesn’t linger long.

You will need a dark sky to see the cone shape of the Zodiacal light by the 3rd week of September. Venus is sitting in the middle of the light’s cone and offers a nice guide to finding it before the Sun washes everything away.

The only meteors to be seen this month are so called Sporadics. They aren’t attached to any recognized comet trail. Even so, they can pop up and catch us by surprise as they blaze across the heavens. There are all manner of debris, in huge numbers, discovered and undiscovered, going about their tangled, criss-cross paths through the Solar System.

Highlights: September 5: The Moon is 3 degrees north of Uranus about 5am. September 6: Last Quarter Moon. September 11: Moon passes north of Venus with the Beehive cluster close by. September 12: The Moon is at apogee – 403,931 Kms. September 13: The bright star Regulus in the constellation Leo, is 5 degrees away from a very slim crescent Moon at dawn. September 14: New Moon. September 19: Venus is at greatest brightness - -4.8 magnitude. This a golden opportunity to find Venus during daylight. September 20: At dusk, a waxing crescent Moon is 5 degrees from Antares, in the constellation Scorpius. The next morning at 4 am, the Moon is just less than a degree north of Antares. September 22: Fall Astronomy Day. September 23: Autumnal Equinox. Fall has arrived. No chance of calling off winter I suppose. Ahh, winter can nice too. September 26: A gibbous Moon passes 3 degrees below Saturn at 9pm. September 27: The Moon is at perigee – 357,822 Kms. September 29: Full Moon. This one is called the Full Harvest Moon. It is the Full Moon that occurs closest to the Fall equinox. It also occurs near the time when corn is harvested. Thus, another name is the Full Corn Moon.

This is absolutely the best time of year for astronomy! The nights are longer and start earlier. You don’t have to wait up until bedtime for the sky to get dark enough to observe; no bugs to pester you and and the Milky Way is still a sight to see. I rest my case.

Keep looking up! And watch for those late night sporadics!

Don’t forget to check out events at the North Frontenac Dark Sky site, or, as it’s known now, the North Frontenac Astronomy Park.

Also check the Lennox and Addington Dark Sky Viewing Area for observing opportunities this summer. The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) website https://rasc.ca has a listing of astronomy events for Ontario and the Kingston branch of the RASC website lists events happening, especially in our area.

Feel free to contact me with questions or observations at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Clear skies!