September Skygazing Report ✨

Hi skygazers!

My hiatus continues, but though I am taking time away from writing, sharing the monthly report is a must !!

Astronomically, this is an exciting month, and a fairly balanced one as far as evening & morning sights go.

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Between each Full & New Moon, the Moon is waning. To wane is to gradually decrease in size. The fully illuminated disc becomes a less complete disc, a cat eye, a half circle, a crescent, a fingernail, and eventually it cannot be found, hidden by the glow of the Sun.

It is the waning Moon that will meet Jupiter and Venus in the middle of the month, across one of my favorite realms of space. The dates noted in the calendar are the moments the Moon makes its closest conjunction with each planet, but the days in between those meetings are equally inspiring.

Looking East in the image below, what catches your eye? Is it Venus hovering above Royal Star Regulus, the heart of the lion? Is it Jupiter creating a unique shape with Pollux & Castor of Gemini? Maybe you find yourself mesmerized by a cosmic triangle that connects Sirius, Procyon, and Betelgeuse.

If the thought of learning and/or remembering the names of stars, or the shapes of constellations feels daunting - do not worry. Sometimes the most meaningful moments are those when we look up with no awareness at all. I like to think of it as sky divination. Where will your attention go?

This happened to me a few nights ago.

With a new home comes new skies, so I have been trying to remember to step out - which is oddly difficult when the brain wants to unpack every box, finish painting every wall, continue cleaning every room, and collapse on the floor every night.

Imagine my delight when I learned our back yard looks East.

The first two shapes to catch my eye were familiar friends, Pegasus & Cassiopeia, and these are great constellations to look for this month.

For Pegasus, look for the Great Square rising Due East. For Cassiopeia, well, you may already have seen her! As a circumpolar constellation here in the Northern Hemisphere, these stars are always visible in Northern skies, appearing to rotate around Polaris - our North Star. The configuration of stars are arranged in such a way that at times the constellation looks like a W, other times, an M, and other times the number 3. We’ll explore this further another time..

This month, you can locate the Great Square of Pegasus rising in the East after twilight ends, then turn North (look slightly to the left) to meet Cassiopeia.

This would have been a good month to delve into the astronomy of Eclipses, but again, moving is quite the endeavor !! Instead, I’m sharing an old video that my friend & teacher Brett posted a few years back.

Let me know what you’re looking forward to seeing this month!

Wishing you clear skies ~