{"id":2994,"date":"2023-09-05T01:25:52","date_gmt":"2023-09-05T01:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/?p=2994"},"modified":"2023-09-05T01:28:12","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T01:28:12","slug":"griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-september-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/2023\/09\/05\/griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-september-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Griffith Observatory Sky Report through September, 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/strong><\/a>LISTEN to this week\u2019s Sky Report<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Sept_2023_Sky_Report.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between September 1 and September 30, 2023. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California.<\/p>\n

Mercury<\/strong> sets three minutes after the sun sets on the 1st<\/sup> and is unobservable. On the 9th<\/sup>, Mercury rises due east at 6:09 a.m., PDT, and the sun rises at 6:32 a.m., PDT, 23 minutes later. On the 30th<\/sup>, Mercury rises at 5:37 a.m., PDT, and the sun rises at 6:47 a.m., PDT, one hour ten minutes later. The planet\u2019s disk is six arcseconds wide, and a magnification of 200x is needed. Do not observe any planet when it comes close to the sun, for the danger to the eyes is great.<\/p>\n

Venus<\/strong> rises north of east at 4:33 a.m., PDT, on the 1st<\/sup>. The sun rises at 6:27 a.m., PDT, one hour and 54 minutes later, and so Venus is observable. On the 30th<\/sup>, Venus rises in the east at 3:23 a.m., PDT, and the sun rises at 6:47 a.m., PDT, three hours and 24 minutes later. Venus is 36-percent illuminated and 32 arcseconds wide.<\/p>\n

Mars<\/strong> is in Virgo the Maiden on the 17th<\/sup>. On the 1st<\/sup>, the sun sets at 7:19 p.m., PDT, and Mars sets in the west at 8:24 p.m., PDT, one hour five minutes later. The planet\u2019s disk is only 3.8 arcseconds wide and so is too small to be seen in most telescopes. On the 30th<\/sup>, the sun sets at 6:39 p.m., PDT, and Mars sets at 7:19 p.m., PDT, 40 minutes later. The disk of Mars will remain small until a few months before January, 2025, the time of the planet\u2019s next opposition.<\/p>\n

Jupiter<\/strong> is in Aries the Ram. On the 1st<\/sup>, Jupiter rises north of east at 10:18 p.m., PDT. On the 30th<\/sup>, Jupiter rises at 8:20 p.m., PDT, and the planet is 48 arcseconds wide. A magnification of 50x will show the Red Spot, and the four bright Galilean moons may be seen moving back and forth, roughly in a line centered on Jupiter.<\/p>\n

Saturn<\/strong> is in Aquarius the Water Bearer. On the 1st<\/sup>, the planet rises south of east at 7:04 p.m., PDT. On the 30th<\/sup>, Saturn rises at 5:04 p.m., PDT. Saturn is 19 arcseconds wide. A magnification of 50x is needed to see the rings and Saturn\u2019s largest moon Titan.<\/p>\n

Uranus<\/strong> is in Aries the Ram. On the 1st<\/sup>, Uranus rises north of east at 10:38 p.m., PDT, and at 8:42 p.m., PDT, on the 30th<\/sup>.\u00a0 On the 15th<\/sup>, Uranus is at Right Ascension 3h<\/sup> 21m<\/sup> 14s<\/sup> and declination +18\u00b0 6\u02b9 58\u02ba. A magnification of 200x is needed to see its 3.7-arcsecond-wide disk.<\/p>\n

Neptune<\/strong> is in Pisces the Fishes. On the 1st<\/sup>, the planet rises south of east at 8:03 p.m., PDT. On the 30th<\/sup>, Neptune rises at 6:07 p.m., PDT. On the 19th<\/sup>, Neptune is at opposition and is closest to earth. On the 15th<\/sup>, Neptune is at Right Ascension 23h<\/sup> 47m<\/sup> 34s<\/sup> and declination -2\u00b0 44\u02b9 12\u02ba.\u00a0 A magnification of 200x is needed to see its 2.3-arcsecond-wide disk.<\/p>\n

Last quarter occurs on the 6th<\/sup>, new moon on the 14th<\/sup>, first quarter on the 22nd<\/sup>, and full moon on the 29th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

SPECIAL EVENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Autumn begins<\/strong> and summer ends when the sun reaches the autumnal equinox on the 22nd<\/sup> at 11:50 p.m., PDT. At this moment, the sun crosses the celestial equator from north to south on its journey along the ecliptic.\u00a0 The sun rises at 6:41 a.m., PDT, and sets at 6:50 p.m., PDT. The day is 12 hours nine minutes long. The days will continue to grow shorter, and the nights get longer, until the sun reaches the winter solstice on December 21.<\/p>\n

A Lunar-X event<\/strong> happens on Thursday, the 21st<\/sup>, at 8:40 p.m., PDT.\u00a0 Lunar-X is the raised rim of a few craters that are illuminated by the sun. It appears as a white X-shaped feature on the dark half of the first quarter moon, just west of the terminator, the line between the illuminated and the dark portions of the moon. Lunar-X will be visible for a few hours. Binoculars or a small telescope will be needed to see it.<\/p>\n

Follow All Space Considered and Griffith Observatory on Facebook<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, and Twitter<\/a> for updates on astronomy and space-related events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LISTEN to this week\u2019s Sky Report https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Sept_2023_Sky_Report.mp3 This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between September 1 and September 30, 2023. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California. Mercury sets three minutes after … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-skyreport"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2994"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3002,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2994\/revisions\/3002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}