By Heather Durham | August 31, 2021
This month brings a great deal of activity for sky watchers. We have three meteor showers, the Harvest Moon and also the autumnal equinox along with other sites. I’ve included a Youtube video in the References, which should be viewed first for a close up visual effect. Enjoy folks and feel free to write or comment please. Thank you so much and I hope you have an opportunity to enjoy what’s ahead!
September 1. The Aurigid meteor shower should reach its peak today. From the eastern horizon, this will become visible after 10 pm and remain active until dawn. This shower comes from the constellation Auriga. You may be able to see about 5 showers per hour providing the weather cooperates. The Aurigid does not appear every year according to Wikipedia. The last time it peaked was in 2007.
September 9. The September e-Perseid meteor shower will peak today and will be most vibrant. This is from the Constellation Perseus. The Moon and Venus will rise and head towards the right together. According to Wikipedia, “the constellation gives its name to the Perseid cluster, a massive galaxy cluster located 250 million miles from Earth.
September 10. The Moon and Venus will travel closely to one another.
September 13. The first quarter of the Moon will appear in the shy tonight. Mercury will travel to its further distance from the Sun heading east.
September 15. The Moon and Saturn will rise together and pass each other as closely as ever.
September 18. The Moon and Jupiter will rise to the right in close proximity to one another this evening.
September 20. The full Harvest Moon will brighten up the night sky. This is the Harvest Moon for it is the closest one to the autumnal equinox.
September 22. The autumn equinox arrives today in the northern hemisphere and spring in the Southern Hemisphere. An equinox date brings us almost 12 hours or daylight and nightlight.
This is the second of two equinoxes each year where the center of the Sun lies directly over the Equator.
September 27. The Daytime Sextanid meteor shower from the Constellation Sextans will peak today and might be visible from New Hampshire from around 4:23 pm in the evening until dawn comes just past 6:00 am. According to Wikipedia,” the Constellation is the location of the field studied by the COSMOS Project, under taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.”
September 28. The Harvest Moon will show its last quarter.
References:
Ford, D.F. (n.d.). September 2021. Retrieved from In-the-Sky.Org/Newscal.Php?Month=9&year=2021&maxdiff=1#datesel.
Wikipedia. (2020, April 22). Aurigid. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurigids
Wikipedia. (2021, July 13). September e-Perseids. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseus_(constellation)
Wikipedia. (2021, July 13). Sextans. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sextans
Youtube. (2021, August 14). September 2021 Astronomical Calendar. Retrieved from www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDDAXcbbkKg
Milton Observer 