The Sky This Week - ThursdaySeptember 26 to Thursday October 3

The New Moon is Sunday September  29.  Venus and Mercury climb higher in the evening twilight. Mercury is close the bright star Spica on the 29th. On the 30th Venus, Spica, Mercury and the thin Crescent Moon are close together in the evening twilight. Jupiter is easily visible as the brightest object in the north-western evening skies. Saturn is near Jupiter, is high in the evening skies.

The New Moon is Sunday September  29.  The Moon is at Perigee, when it is closest to Earth, on the 28th.

Sky at 19:41 ACST on Saturday, 28 September (90 minutes after sunset) looking west as seen from Adelaide. Jupiter is high above the western horizon. Saturn is high above the northern horizon.

The left upper insert shows the telescopic view of Jupiter at 19:35. 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 18:41 ACST on Monday, 30 September (30 minutes after sunset) as seen from Adelaide. Mercury and Venus are above the horizon and you will need a flat, clear horizon such as the desert or ocean to see them at their best.

Mercury is close to the bright star Spica, which may become clearer if you wait 5 -10 minutes more for the sky to darken. The thin crescent Moon shines close to the trio making an excellent evening sight.
Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia 90 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen. 

The whole sky at 19:41 ACST on Saturday, 28 September (90 minutes after sunset) as seen from Adelaide. The Southern Cross is nearing the horizon. However, the galactic core (and the celestial emu) is near the zenith and there are numerous clusters and nebula high in the sky in the tail of the Scorpion and the lid of the teapot of Sagittarius  that will be a delight to explore while the Moon is new.

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset), click to embiggen.

The area around Saturn in Sagittarius  on Saturday, 28 September (90 minutes after sunset) as seen from Adelaide. This chart is suitable for binocular viewing. The bright star Albadah and the planet Saturn  point to the beautiful globular cluster M22, indicated by brackets  (well worth binocular exploration) and below that is the lagoon and triffid nebulae.

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

Venus is low above the western horizon in the evening twilight. You will need a level clear horizon like the desert or ocean to see it at its best. On the 30th Venus, Spica, Mercury and the thin Crescent Moon are close together in the evening twilight.

Mercury is above the western horizon in the evening twilight. On the 30th Venus, Spica, Mercury and the thin Crescent Moon are close together in the evening twilight.

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.

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 7:00 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/