The Sky This Week - ThursdaySeptember 12 to Thursday September 19

The Full Moon is Saturday September 14 (apogee or mini-Moon).  Jupiter is easily visible as the brightest object in the north-western evening skies. near Jupiter, is high in the evening skies.Venus and Mercury (just) return to the evening twilight.

The Full Moon is Saturday September 14. The Moon is at apogee on Friday September 13, making this a mini-Moon.

Sky at 19:30 ACST on Saturday, 14 September (90 minutes after sunset) looking west as seen from Adelaide. Jupiter is high above the western horizon. Saturn is high above the northen horizon.

The left upper insert shows the telescopic view of Jupiter at 19:30. The left lower inset shows the telescopic view of Saturn at the same time and scale

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia 90 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen.

The western horizon at 18:30 ACST on Sunday 15 September (30 minutes after sunset) as seen from Adelaide. Mercury and Venus are just above the horizon and you will need a flat, clear horizon such as the desert or ocean to see them. You will also need binoculars to pick out Mercury.

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia 90 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen. 

The Moon is at apogee on midnight, Friday September 13, making the September Full Moon a mini-Moon. The Moon is officially full on the 14th at 3pm, but the Moon does not rise until 5:11 pm, so it will be a litlle bigger than a proper apogee full Moon. It will nice to compare this with the the 20 February perigee “super” Moon (telescopic simulation above, but you can see previous apogee/perigee pairs here and here.)

Venus returns to the evening sky low above the western horizon.

Mercuryreturns to the evening sky low above the western horizon. You will need binoculars to see it initally in the twilight glow.

Jupiter is now well past opposition. However, it is still well worth observing. Jupiter is easily visible as the brightest object in the north-western/western sky (aside from the Moon) and is located just below the distinctive constellation of Scorpius and the bright red star Antares. It is visible all evening long and is a good telescope target in the evening, being highest above the northern horizon around 6:00 pm local time.

Mars is lost in the twilight.

Saturn was at opposition on July 10th, when it was visible all night long. Saturn is to the east of Jupiter and just below the “handle” of the “teapot of Sagittarius. It is best for telescopic viewing from just around astronomical twilight local time until the early morning and is highest above the northern horizon when it is ideal for telescopic imaging, around 8:00 pm local time.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what’s up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.

Star Map via Virtual sky. Use your mouse to scroll around and press 8 when your pointer is in the map to set to current time.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/