September has almost arrived! I hope that you were able to see the Perseids throughout August. Hopefully you were able to view the planets as well since Jupiter will fall from our view during the month of September.
September also brings a couple of meteor showers. While neither of them are as major as the Perseids of August, it will still be worth going out to view them. The first shower, the Aurigids will peak on the night of August 31 and morning of September 1. It is expected to produce an average of 6 meteors per hour. That's extremely low compared to the Perseids last month! The next shower is called the Epsilon Perseids. This meteor shower also appears to originate from the constellation Perseus like the Perseids of August. However this shower will only produce an average of 5 meteors per hour. This shower peaks on the night of September 8. The best time to view both of these meteor showers will be on the peak night and after the moon sets. However, there will still be an increase in"shooting stars"on the dates leading up to and after the peak date.
Neptune will be at opposition this month. Again, this means that Neptune will be opposite the Sun from our perspective, and will appear brighter in your binoculars/telescope. Unfortunately, you will not be able to see Neptune without a pair of binoculars or larger instrument.
As briefly mentioned in the opening of this post, Jupiter will fall from view towards the end of September. Leading up to Jupiter's demise, Venus and the king of planets will make a great pairing in evening twilight. Just look west after sunset. If you look early enough in the month, you might even catch Mercury with these two planets. By the 22nd, Mercury will be visible in the morning sky instead of the evening sky.
Mars and Saturn also make a great pair during the month. The two planets and the star Antares will form a nice triangle that will change nightly as Mars and Saturn move through the sky. This will be found in the southern sky.
Here are the dates of a few of the more exciting events this month:
September 1: New Moon. Aurigids Meteor Shower peak.
September 2: Neptune at opposition.
September 9: Epsilon Perseids Meteor Shower peak.
September 16: Full Moon.
September 22: Autumn Equinox
September 28: Mercury will be at it's highest point of the year before dawn.
