September is a great month for planets with Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Uranus, and Neptune all visible at various times. Venus, visible in the evening sky for so long, is now lighting up the dawn sky. Because of this behavior, it was originally thought by the ancient Greeks that Venus was two separate planets. The Romans had two names for Venus depending on when it was visible: the morning arrival of Venus was called Lucifer (Light-Bringer), and the evening appearance was called Vesper. More information: Venus on Wikipedia
There are no meteor showers worth discussing this month. The New Moon falls close to a weekend, so Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night observing and astrophotography (assuming weather holds) promise to be great.
Check out Jeff’s Observing reports on the NOVAC website
NOVAC Observing Report Sep. 2023
Jupiter Eclipse Events on Friday and Saturday Nights
Sep 3 4:07 AM Io Eclipse Start (S -28 J 154 62)
Sep 10 6:01 AM Io Eclipse Start (S -9 J 230 61)
Sep 23 11:47 PM Europa Eclipse Start (S -48 J 107 32)
The Sun
Sep 10 will rise at 6:45 AM, will set at 7:25 PM
The Moon
Sep 14 New Moon
Sep 22 First Quarter
Sep 29 Full Moon
Events
Sep 19 Neptune is at opposition (Earth between Neptune and the Sun)
Sep 22 Mercury is at greatest western elongation (Mercury about 17 degrees
above the horizon at sunrise from Sep 21 to Sep 25)
Sep 23 Autumnal equinox
The Planets
Sep 10
rises transits sets
Mercury 6:14 AM 12:32 PM 6:52 PM
Venus 4:07 AM 10:46 AM 5:24 PM
Mars 8:32 AM 2:25 PM 8:17 PM
Jupiter 9:49 PM 4:46 AM 11:38 AM
Saturn 6:48 PM 12:10 AM 5:36 AM
mag diam notes for Sep 10
---- ----- ----------------
Mercury 3.2 9.9"
Venus -4.5 43.0"
Mars 1.7 3.7" WSW, 10*
Jupiter -2.7 45.2"
Saturn 0.5 18.8" ESE, 6*
(* degrees elevation at sunset taking into account atmospheric refraction)
(mag = apparent magnitude, diam = apparent equatorial angular diameter)
2 Comments
Notice email for NOVAC Public Meeting 9/10/23, 7:30 pm EDT was received at 6:02 pm EDT on 9/10/23 giving almost no time-margin to attend the meeting.
It is suggested that such messages should be broadcasted at least few days before the event.
Sorry to hear you got the meeting invite so late. Looking back announcements mentioning the meeting were sent out to members on:
Thursday, September 7th: “[NOVAC announcement] NOVAC reminders!”
Saturday, September 9th: “[NOVAC announcement] CANCELED – Crockett Observing tonight”
Saturday, September 9th: “[NOVAC] Pre-meeting informal dinner: [NOVAC General Meeting is TOMORROW, Sunday, 9/10]”
Let me know if you are missing some of those emails and we can get our IT to check the mailing list. Just in case there are problems, we have our October meeting this Sunday at 7:30! The meetings are usually on the second Sunday of the month.
Finally, assuming the speaker gives permission, videos of the talks are posted on YouTube here:
https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernVirginiaAstronomyClub
Thanks,
-Chris