What’s Up in the Night Sky? – September 2020 by Fred Barrett

Fred Barrett | Sep 02, 2020

If you haven’t already, start getting excited about Mars! Every two years and 50 days, a Martian year, Mars is in opposition –the Earth passes between Mars and the Sun and the 2 planets are as close as they can be in their orbits. Since the Earth’s year is roughly half of Mars, that means that by this time next year, Mars will be on the opposite side of the Sun from us and very dim. Right now Mars is getting brighter and is quite easy to find in the east after midnight. It will rise earlier as September passes and by closest approach on October 13th, it will be as bright, if not brighter than Jupiter and be high in the south. Speaking of Jupiter, it’s so bright in our night sky mainly because it is so huge. Mars is a tiny planet and its brightness comes from passing so near to Earth every 2 and a bit years. Mars is a beautiful sight by eye, binoculars and telescope. I plan on imaging Mars through my 11 inch reflector in my Observatory at opposition in mid October. By the end of this month though, it will be close enough to attempt to get a good picture for October’s column.

Jupiter and Saturn are prominent in the south all this month about an hour after sunset. They head towards the southwest as the evening heads towards midnight. Jupiter is the brightest and about 30 degrees above the horizon with Saturn to the left of it. They are above the tea pot asterism of the constellation Sagittarius and the Milky Way arches right through them as it rises high up in the sky. Above the spout of the tea pot is the centre of our galaxy where we find a Black Hole with the name A* - astronomers do have a sense of humour. Both planets are stunning in a telescope and easy to place in your eyepiece. Binoculars provide a pretty good view too, especially of Jupiter’s 4 dancing moons that change their positions every night.

Mars will be at its observing best for the next 3 months especially after midnight when it will be roughly 60 degrees above the horizon – nice and high. It was low to the horizon in 2018. Mar’s disk will be 92% lit at the beginning of September and will increase to 99% by month’s end. Details and geology on the surface will be fantastic. Hopefully we won’t get a dust storm…

Venus rises about 3 am early in the month. It can be found south of the bright stars Castor and Pollux in the constellation Gemini in the east. Venus is brightly hard to miss! Watch for a beautiful sight on the morning of the 14th. Venus is about 3 degrees south of M44, the Beehive cluster in Cancer; a crescent Moon drifts nearby, picture perfect.

This is the best time of year to observe; no bugs and darkness arrives early. There’s a Full Moon early on the 2nd and it’s almost full again at the end of the month – a perfect time to pull out the binoculars and explore the Moon.

This month’s highlights:

September 2: Full Moon. This year’s September Full Moon is called the Full Corn Moon. The full moon closest to the Autumnal Equinox which is on September 22 this year, is usually called the Harvest Moon. When the full moon closest to the equinox occurs in October (October 1 this year), then the September full moon is named the Full Corn Moon. Got that? Whatever happened to the Corn moon syncing with the corn harvest in August?

September 6: The Moon passes 0.03 degrees north of Mars at 1 am EDT. The Moon is at apogee – 403,200 Kms.

September 10: Last quarter Moon.

September 14: The Moon passes 4 degrees north of Venus at 1 pm EDT. Here is a great opportunity to find and see Venus during daylight. Venus is so bright; it’s easier to do than it sounds.

September 15: Zodiacal light can be seen in east before morning twilight for next 2 weeks.

September 17: New Moon.

September 18: The Moon is at perigee – 357,000 Kms.

September 22: Autumnal Equinox – 9:31 am EDT.

September 23: First quarter Moon.

September 25: The Moon passes 1.6 degrees south of Jupiter at 3 am EDT. The Moon passes 2 degrees south of Saturn at 5 pm EDT.

It’s a great month for looking up!

“The Beginner’s Observing Guide by Leo Enright is an invaluable companion for adventures in the sky. It also contains useful star charts. It can be ordered from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada at www.rasc.ca/publications. A subscription to our very own excellent Canadian astronomy magazine “SkyNews” can be arranged at the RASC website as well.

Let me know how your observing has gone this month, especially anything unusual. I enjoy the feedback. If you have any questions or suggestions you can contact me through this paper or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Clear Skies! Fred.