Sky
The moon will be in the first quarter on Friday, September 22 at 9:32 PM CEST. Due to its position below the ecliptic and the very low inclination of the ecliptic to the horizon, the crescent moon will be difficult to see. During the week, the Moon visits the constellations of Scorpio and Sagittarius. On Saturday, he is “in the ear” of the Sagittarius “teapot”. On Sunday 9/24, the ascent of the star 59 Sgr (mag 4.5) may be interesting, approximately at 19:40 CEST, from behind the illuminated side of the Moon during the light after sunset.
Planets
Saturn (0.5 mag) can be found in the evening in the constellation of Aquarius above the southeastern horizon. Jupiter (−2.6 mag) is only low in the evening and reaches a good height only after midnight. Only with binoculars is it worth looking for Neptune (7.8 mag) in Pisces and Career (5.7 mag) in Aries near Jupiter. In the morning, at first glance, we are attracted by the distinctly glowing Venus (−4.7 mag) as the morning star. This week begins a good period of morning visibility of the planet Mercury (brightness will vary from 0 to −0.7 mag). The planet will be just low in the east at dawn, but it will brighten and could be visible to the naked eye.
It also belongs to the morning hours zodiac light. The slanting cone of dust illuminated by the Sun will be best observed before five o’clock in the morning in places where there is still no significant light pollution and where there are no big cities, especially towards the east.
Sun Ca-k
Author: Jiří SpilkaActivity of the Sun is changeable. Occasional moderate eruptions occurred, spots numerous but not very large. Eruptions occurred in a region favorably tilted toward Earth, but none were accompanied by plasma leakage from the corona. That changed on Saturday 9/16. After the filament eruptionhanging above the surface near the center of the Sun, a plume of plasma was ejected from the corona directly toward Earth (hello CME). A view of the stains also offers current SDO snapshot.
Kometa C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) disappeared in the sunshine, one might say with great pomp. The best period of her observation fell on the morning hours from September 5 to 10. The comet displayed a very nice ion tail that was at least 15° long, but looking through the telescope mostly showed a tail only about a degree or two long. The reason was the low height of the comet above the horizon and the low sensitivity of our eye in these difficult conditions.
The evening window from September 14 to 16 offered even worse viewing conditions. The comet was only two degrees high at the time the Sun had sunk 10 degrees below the horizon. This made it completely impossible to observe it by eye with a telescope. The reason was also the low transparency of the northwestern horizon. It was possible to find it at least photographically, when it looked like a more nebulous star. Only with the help of a sensitive camera and binoculars was it possible to capture even a hint of a tail.
The 15 September 2023 image shows Comet C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) through the WO FLT98 telescope (512 mm focal length) when it was 1.9° above the horizon. The ASI294MCPro camera shot for 30 seconds and the contrast was adjusted to show even a hint of the tail.
Author: Martin Gembec
Nevertheless, it is clear that this is the biggest cometary surprise of this year, which was worth it thanks to the favorable weather. The comet will now pass from our view behind the Sun and will have weakened considerably before emerging in the southern sky.
Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic issued an analysis bright car from September 10, which, thanks to the clear weather, was seen by a number of accidental witnesses. It turned out that it went out relatively high, at an altitude of about 30 km, but a small fragment of about 50 g and several smaller ones could fall all the way to the earth’s surface near Ledče nad Sázavou.
Kosmonautika
She arrived at the ISS a new three-man long-duration crew in the spacecraft Soyuz MS-24. The new members of the long-term mission to the ISS are experienced Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and newcomers Nikolai Chub from Russia and Loral O’Hara from the USA. The International Space Station (ISS) now has an evening flyby window. So if you see a bright star flying roughly from west to east, it’s definitely it. Predictions are offered by e.g. Heavens Above.com.
Author: Antonín Hušek
September 15 took place premiere successful start rakety Firefly Alpha. This smaller carrier with a payload of about one ton for low orbit was developed by the company Firefly Aerospace. During this launch, the Victus Nox military technology satellite was launched. This was the first successful launch (after a failure in 2021 and a partial success in 2022).
After takeoff starlinks On September 12, a period of clear evenings followed, so these satellites could be followed like a train of twenty dots flying across the sky and disappearing into the earth’s shadow. The satellites are very bright, which is not surprising when we consider that most of the panel surface is shiny like a mirror. More starlinks started on 16.9.
Chinese CZ-2D rocket brought out on Sunday 17 September, another of the Yaogan 39 tracking satellites.
Anniversary
September 19, 1988 (age 35) the Shavit rocket launched with Israel’s first secret satellite Ofek-1. The name of the satellite means “horizon” in Hebrew.
The Galileo probe at Jupiter in the drawing
Author: NASAOn September 21, 2003 (20 years), the probe disappeared in Jupiter’s atmosphere Galileo. Launched by space shuttle Atlantis in October 1989, it headed for Jupiter, taking close-up pictures of the planets Gaspra and Ida along the way. Since December 1995, she has worked successfully at Jupiter, studying the atmosphere and its moons.
An honorary member of the Czech Astronomical Society died on September 23, 2008 (15 years old). Emil Škrabal. Even at the age of one hundred, he enthusiastically talked about his life, not only astronomical. Just the memory of a clear and unblemished night sky is certainly remarkable. Every era simply has its own. Professor Škrabal was mainly interested in planets and comets, and it lasted him despite a difficult operation at the age of 99. In the end, he lived to be a respectable 102 years old.
Outlook for next week
Mercury in the morning sky Anniversary: Shenzhou 7, three astronauts, 1st EVA Anniversary: Vladimir Remek Anniversary: SMART-1 Anniversary: first photo of a comet Anniversary: Falcon 1 Anniversary: Discovery, STS-26, Return To Flight after Challenger Anniversary: NASA
Recommended links
Sky map with phenomena in September for download in PDF.
Sky currently, section of the website TIME.
Czsky.cz – a website for sky watchers.
Events in the sky in 2023 – article on astro.cz.
Overview of the visibility of bodies and selected objects (from Milevsko).
2023-09-17 17:00:00
#38th #Space #Week
