September will be an important month for astronomers and sky gazers as a number of celestial events will occur during the month.
Throughout the month of September this year, Mars will appear prominently visible in the evening sky. Moon and Saturn will also be seen clearly during the month.
Astronomers reveal that on Sept. 1, Mars was five degrees to the lower left of Saturn in the evening sky. The scientists also unveiled that Saturn appeared yellow when observed via a telescope and its rings were tilted at 22 degrees from its edges.
While Saturn and Mars will be the biggest celestial objects in the evening sky (after the moon) during September, other stars like Arcturus, Vega and Altair will be the other brightest objects in the sky.
On Sept. 5 and Sept. 6, sky gazers will be able to view the three stars placed vertically between Mars and Antares, the seventh brightest star in the sky and the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius.
Mars will move around an equal distance between Antares and Saturn by Sept. 12 and from Sept. 22 to Oct. 3, Antares and Mars will be within five degrees of one another.
On Sept. 29, the crescent waxing Moon will appear above Antares and Mars.
Supermoons have occurred twice in this summer on July 12 and Aug. 10. For those who have missed these supermoons, there is another chance to view it on Sept. 8 and Sept. 9. During a supermoon, the Moon appears to be 14 percent bigger and around 30 percent brighter than normal in the sky.
The biggest planet of our Solar System, Jupiter along with Venus will shine brightly during the early morning time just before sunrise in the entire month of September. On Sept. 20, the fading crescent Moon will become south of Jupiter during the pre-dawn sky. Venus will start to disappear from view towards the end of the month due to the upcoming conjunction with our Sun.
September also has a number of dates significant for space exploration. On Sept. 3 1976, the Viking 2 landed on the surface of Mars. This was just the second landing after Viking 1, which landed on the surface of the Red Planet a few weeks earlier.
On Sept. 23, 1846, Johann Galle, a German astronomer discovered Neptune.
