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About half an hour after the bright gibbous moon rises in the east on Sunday night, Sept. 3, the brilliant planet Jupiterwill rise to join it. The pair will cross the sky through the night and shine high in the southwestern sky before sunrise. Hour by hour, the moon's easterly orbital motion (green line) will carry it closer to Jupiter, and the diu...

On Monday, Sept. 4, the eastward prograde motion of the planet Jupiter across the stars of southeastern Arieswill slow to a stop. After tonight, Jupiter will commence a westward retrograde loop that will last until early January (red path). The planet's bright, white dot will be shining in the lower part of the eastern sky in late evening. Retrogra...

In the eastern sky on Monday night, Sept. 4, the planet Uranus will be located just a few finger widths below the waning gibbous moon. That's cozy enough for them to share the view in binoculars (orange circle). Uranus' magnitude5.7 speck can be seen in binoculars and is easily observed in backyard telescopes. Watch for the bright little PleiadesSt...

Look in the lower part of the eastern sky late on Tuesday evening, Sept. 5, to see the remarkable Pleiades Star Cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters, Messier 45, and Subaru, positioned several finger-widths to the lower left (or 5 degrees to the celestial east) of the waning, half-illuminated moon. In the Eastern time zone, the cluster and the ...

The moon will complete three-quarters of its orbit around Earth, measured from the previous new moon, on Wednesday, Sept. 6 at 6:21 p.m. EDT and 3:21 p.m. PDT or 22:21 GMT. At the third (or last) quarter phase the moon appears half-illuminated, on its western, sunward side. It will rise around midnight local time, and then remain visible until it s...

Pegasus, which climbs the Eastern sky during September evenings, contains one of the most recognizable asterismsin the sky, a giant square of four similarly bright stars called the Great Square. The square's edges are about 1.6 fist diameters (or 16 degrees) in length, and it spans two fist-widths (about 20 degrees) measured corner to corner. The p...

In the eastern sky on starry September evenings, look for a dim star shining a thumb's width just outside of the baseball diamond shape of Pegasus' Great Square, midway between the top and right corners. That yellow, sunlike star named Helvetios (or 51 Pegasi) is orbited by the first exoplanetever discovered, in 1995. The planet, which orbits that ...

When the waning crescent moon rises over the northeastern rooftops during the wee hours of Sunday morning, September 10, it will make a pretty sight aligned below Gemini's brightest stars Pollux and Castor. The moon will be close enough to the lower star, warm-tinted Pollux, for them to share the field of view of binoculars. For observers viewing i...

Between about 3 a.m. local time and dawn on Monday morning, Sept.11, look in the eastern sky for the very slim crescent of the waning moon. The big open star cluster in Cancer known as the Beehive, Praesepe, and Messier 44 will be positioned several finger-widths to its lower right (or 3.5 degrees to the celestial south). The moon and cluster will ...