The new moon arrives on Monday (September 6) and over the next two days passes near Mercury and then Venus.
The moon is officially new at 20:52 pm EDT (0052 September 7 GMT), according to NASA’s SkyCal. A new moon means that the moon is directly between the Sun and the Earth and shares the same celestial length. conjunction. (The term also applies to other celestial bodies, such as planets).
The timing of the lunar phases depends on where the moon it is relative to the Earth, so it occurs at the same time all over the world, the only differences being due to the time zone where it is located. In Melbourne, Australia, for example, the new moon occurs at 10:52 a.m. on September 7, and in London at 1:52 a.m. on September 7.
Related: The best events of the night sky in September 2021 (star observation maps)
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A new moon is invisible from Earth unless there is a plot eclipse, when the moon passes in front of the sun. The orbit of the moon is tilted about 5 degrees relative to the plane of Earth’s orbit, which is why there are no eclipses every month. Most of the time the moon is offset by the sun (from the point of view of terrestrial observers). The next solar eclipse will not be until December 4, 2021.
Young moon meets Mercury
On September 8, the moon is in conjunction with the planet Wednesday, but the mating will only be easily visible from southern latitudes. The moon will only have one day of life and will barely be visible as a thin crescent moon after sunset. If you live in New York City, the sun sets at 7:15 p.m. that same day, according to Time and date. At that time, Mercury will only be about 9 degrees above the horizon, according to the Heavens Above sky observation site.
The conjunction of the moon and Mercury occurs at 16:18 local time in New York City, according to At The-Sky.org – which means it is basically not visible due to the brightness of the sun. However, if you live in the latitude of Mexico City or San Juan, Puerto Rico, the situation improves. From Mexico City, the conjunction occurs at 3:18 pm local time, so it’s still daytime, but as the sun sets at 19:44 Mercury will be 17 degrees above the western horizon, so as the sky gets darker, around 8 p.m., Mexico City time, the couple will become visible.
From the southern hemisphere, the situation is even better: from Melbourne, Australia, the conjunction occurs at 6:18 a.m. local time on September 9, which is long before the moon or Mercury rises, but at sunset (which is at 6:05 pm) Mercury will have about 25 degrees altitude to the northwest. So about 15 minutes later the sky will be dark enough to see them both, standing around 8:15 pm EAST.
Seeing the moon so soon after the new phase is difficult, but doing so remains important for lunar calendars such as those used by observant Jews and Muslims. Note that pointing binoculars or a telescope at an object close to the sun is very dangerous; sunlight is concentrated and can burn the retina, even at sunset. This damage is permanent.
Related: How to observe the sun safely (infographic)
The moon passes through Venus
The next conjunction will take place on Friday (September 10), as the moon passes Venus. This is much better located for people from mid-northern latitudes. The actual conjunction occurs at 1:17 am EDT (0517 GMT), when the Moon and Venus are below the horizon, according to In-The-Sky.org, but they will still be quite together in the sky that night. Both will be in the constellation Virgin. The sunset that day is at 19:12 local time in New York City and Venus will be about 16 degrees high in the southwest. Around 19:30 the planet should be easy enough to see (Venus is one of the brightest objects in the sky) with the moon placed to the left and slightly above. about 4 degrees away.
As with the conjunction of Mercury, those further south will find it easier to observe the event in the evening sky. Observers of the Miami sky will see the sun set at 7:30 p.m. in the East and Venus will be 24 degrees above the horizon. In Cape Town, the conjunction occurs in the morning, at 7:17 am local time, but at sunset, which is at 6:34 pm, Venus is 40 degrees above the western horizon. -northwest. At 18:49 when the sky is dark enough to start seeing stars, Mercury, Spica (the brightest star of the Virgin), Venus and the moon will form an approximate line from the horizon upwards and slightly to the right (north).
The actual time of the Venus conjunction will be visible from the time zones in Eastern Australia (or Western California); for example, in Honolulu, Hawaii, the sun sets at 18:39 local time on September 9 and the conjunction is at 19:17 local time. At this time, the moon and Venus will be about 19 degrees above the horizon. Both will be set around 8:47 p.m. local time.
Other planets
The night of September 8 in mid-northern latitudes, Mart it will only be a few degrees above the horizon at sunset; in New York City, for example, it will only be about 4 degrees high in the west when the sun sets at 19:19 local time, according to Sky above. The red planet will be more visible further south; in Buenos Aires there will be about 9 degrees of altitude at dusk (18.38 local time), still difficult to detect.
Jupiter i Saturn, by contrast, will be visible much of the night. For New Yorkers, Saturn rises at 17:41 and Jupiter at 18:32 in the east, so as the sky darkens completely, we will see them low in the southeast around nine o’clock. night, with Saturn at about 27 degrees and Jupiter at 24 degrees. Jupiter and Saturn will be in the constellation Capricorn, with Saturn to the west (right) of Jupiter. In the southern hemisphere the two planets will be much higher in the sky; from Buenos Aires at 9 p.m., Sept. 6 (local time), Saturn will be at about 67 degrees and Jupiter at 51 degrees above the northeast horizon.
Constellations
September is when the autumn stars rise as the nights lengthen a bit in the northern hemisphere. Before midnight (around 9 pm), you can see the Summer triangle (consisting of the stars Deneb, Altair and Vega) high to the east, with Sagittarius to the south and just to the right, Scorpius: classic summer skies.
At midnight, the Summer Triangle has moved to the western half of the sky and to the south is Capricorn, Aquarius i Fish as it moves east (left). All three are weaker constellations, and difficult to see in brightly lit cities. The star Fomalhaut in Piscis Austrinus (southern fish) is brighter; if one has a clear southern horizon, it will be visible and you can use Jupiter to find it, as it will be almost directly “below” the planet.
Meanwhile, turning north, midnight means you can see the “Great Square” of Pegasus, the legendary winged horse, north of Pisces. The constellation Pegasus it is brighter and usually only visible even from city locations. However, only three of the four stars in the square are in Pegasus, the fourth is the head of Andromeda, who was saved by Perseus as he entered Pegasus. The star, called Alpheratz, will mark the left corner of the square around midnight. Continuing north (left), it is Perseus, and then Auriga, el charioteer, rising to the eastern sky.
In the southern hemisphere, at nine o’clock in the evening, on September 6 Southern Cross and Centaurus are high in the southwest. Continuing south, almost to the zenith at the latitude of Santiago, Chile, you will see Scorpius, “upside down” from the perspective of the antipodes. The southern fish is high to the east and to the south (right) is Grus, the crane. The crane is a “modern” constellation to Europeans, delineated from observations of the southern sky in the 16th and 17th centuries by explorers, but the stars familiar to Arab astronomers and the name of the brightest star, Alnair, is from Arabic. Around Grus (clockwise from the bottom) are Sculptor (which is also next to the southern fish), Phoenix, and Toucan, the toucan.
The sculptor is weak but notable for containing the galactic south pole: looking in that direction means you see the “bottom” of the Milky Way galaxy.
Phoenix is another faint constellation. Its brightest star, Ankaa, is of magnitude 2.4, about a tenth brighter than the star Vega, was part of a figure that Arab astronomers called a dhow (a kind of ship). Toucan contains most of Small Magellanic cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.
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