BRILLIANT VENUS
After its beautiful evening appearance during the first half of 2023, Venus is now dominating the early morning sky
BINO BEAUTIES
Hunt for widefield gems around Aquarius
FIND A CITY ON THE MOON!
Spot the lunar light effect on 8 September
About the writers
Astronomy expert Pete Lawrence is a skilled astro imager and a presenter on The Sky at Night monthly on BBC Four
Steve Tonkin is a binocular observer. Find his tour of the best sights for both eyes on page 54
Also on view this month…
✦ A busy month of meetings for the Moon
✦ Neptune at opposition
✦ Catch asteroid Thisbe
✦ Mercury at greatest western elongation
Red light friendly
To preserve your night vision, this Sky Guide can be read using a red light under dark skies
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SEPTEMBER HIGHLIGHTS
Your guide to the night sky this month
Friday
1
The Alpha Aurigid meteor shower reaches its peak today.
The ‘equation of time’ – the difference between time reported by the artificial ‘mean Sun’ and the apparent Sun – equals zero, meaning sundial shadows report the correct time today!
Monday ▶
4
This evening has a 70%-lit waning gibbous Moon located 3.3° northeast of mag. –2.5 Jupiter. Catch the pair rising above the east-northeast horizon from around 22:00 BST (21:00 UT).
Tuesday
5 The waning gibbous Moon sits near Uranus and Jupiter (see page 46), occulting mag. +4.3 Botein (Delta (δ) Arietis) around 04:45 BST (03:45 UT).
This evening the 60%-lit Moon sits near the Pleiades.
Wednesday
6 This morning’s 58%-lit waning gibbous Moon has libration that favours the southern polar region.
◀ Thursday
7 An opportunity to see the clair-obscur effect known as Gruithuisen’s Lunar City occurs this evening, with optimum conditions around midnight BST (23:00 UT). See page 47 for details.
Friday
8 The Moon has moved sufficiently out of the way to allow you to take our monthly Deep-Sky Tour. Turn to page 56 and take a look at some of the objects on the Lacerta–Cepheus border.
Saturday ▶
9 Magnitude –4.4 Venus currently sits 0.9° south of the seventh-magnitude open cluster M67 in Cancer.
Monday
11 Early risers will catch a 12%-lit waning crescent Moon 3.3° north of the Beehive Cluster, M44. Magnitude –4.4 Venus sits 9.4° south-southeast of the cluster too.
Thursday ▶
14 A chance to spot a thin Moon occurs this morning, with a less than 1%-lit waning crescent Moon rising one hour before sunrise. Mag. +1.8 Mercury sits 6.3° to the right of
