The Sky This Week - ThursdaySeptember 5 to Thursday September 12

The First Quarter Moon is Friday September 6.  Jupiter is easily visible as the brightest object in the north-western evening skies. The Moon is close to Jupiter on the 6th. Saturn, near Jupiter, is high in the evening skies. The Moon is close to Saturn on.

The First Quarter Moon is Friday September 6.

Sky at 19:25 ACST on Friday, 6 September looking west as seen from Adelaide. Jupiter is high above the western horizon. Saturn is to the east.

The left upper insert shows the telescopic view of Jupiter at 21:50. Europa will pass behind Jupiter then. The left lower inset shows the telescopic view of Saturn at the same time and scale

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time , click to embiggen.

The Moon at 00:50 am AEST in Brisbane on Monday 9 September just before Saturn disappears. The left inset shows the telescopic view as  Saturn disappears behind the Moon (click to embiggen).

From the north-west of Australia Saturn is occulted by the Moon around midnight.  The rest of Australia sees the Moon and Saturn very close.

Timings and spotter charts can be found at my occultation site.

The whole sky at 19:24 ACST (90 minutes after sunset) on Saturday, September 7 as seen from Adelaide. The Southern Cross is beginning to leave the zenith. However, the galactic core (and the celestial emu) is at 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 out of the way. The binocular chart above will help you explore the area around the Southern Cross.

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

Venus is lost in the morning twilight and will return to the evening sky in mid-September.

Mercury is lost in the twilight and will return to the evening sky mid-September near Venus.

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 6:30 pm local time. The Moon is close to Jupiter on the 6th

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 8:30 pm local time.Saturn is close to the Moon on the 8-9th and is occulted in north-western Australia.

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/