What’s up in the night sky: September 2024

Welcome to our night sky monthly feature where we focus on easy and fun things to see in the night sky, mostly with just your eyes. This month: a wee partial lunar eclipse, and lot of planets.

All month: Yellowish Saturn rises in the east around sunset and sets in the west around sunrise. 

All month: Reddish Mars rises in the east in the middle of the night and is high up in the predawn. Watch it brighten considerably over the coming months as Earth and Mars grow closer in their orbits. Mars and Jupiter are in a region of the sky with several of the brightest stars and most recognizable constellations including Orion, Gemini, and Taurus.

All month: Very bright Jupiter starts September a little above Mars. They grow farther apart as the days pass. 

All month: Super bright Venus is very close to the horizon in the west shortly after sunset. It sets soon thereafter, so may be hard to see despite its brightness.

Sept. 3: New Moon

Sept. 8: Saturn is at opposition, the opposite side of Earth from the Sun. It will rise in the east as the Sun sets in the west. Approximately the closest/brightest Saturn will appear for the next year, though the difference is small for Saturn because its distance is much larger than the size of Earth’s orbit.

Sept. 17: The Moon is near Saturn.

Sept. 17-18: Full Moon

Sept. 17-18: Partial lunar eclipse. There is just barely a partial lunar eclipse: at maximum, less than 4% of the Moon’s disk will be covered by the dark (umbral) shadow of the Earth. It will be visible from North America, South America, Europe, much of Asia, Africa, and Antarctica

Sept. 23: The Moon is near Jupiter.

Sept. 25: The Moon is near Mars.