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By Deane Morrison

During September, Mars and Jupiter continue to go their separate ways, widening the gap between them from 9 to 23 degrees.

Both planets are surrounded by bright stars usually seen on winter evenings. Enjoy the beauty just before dawn as these stars and their two planetary guests practically fill the eastern sky. The brightest object is Jupiter, while Mars is the ruddy object to its lower left. On the 27th, Mars forms an isosceles triangle with the Gemini twins Castor and Pollux.

On Tuesday the 17th, Earth’s shadow takes a little off the top of the moon during a slight partial lunar eclipse. The eclipse runs from 9:13 to 10:16 p.m. and peaks at 9:44 p.m. At that point, about eight percent of the lunar disk’s upper region will be darkened by Earth’s umbra, or dense inner shadow. The rest of the moon will be in Earth’s outer shadow, the penumbra, in which Earth blocks only some sunlight.

September’s full moon arrives right in the middle of the eclipse, at 9:34 p.m. As the nearest full moon to the fall equinox, it is the harvest moon. It is also a very close, large, and bright super moon.

The eclipsed moon’s nearest bright neighbor will be Saturn. The ringed planet has its own show the night of the 7th, when Earth laps it in the orbital race and it will be up all night.

At nightfall all month long, watch brilliant Arcturus as it seems to drag its kite-shaped constellation, Bootes, the herdsman, down toward the western horizon. Also, turn your binoculars to the south and explore the star fields within the large Summer Triangle of bright stars.

The equinox arrives at 7:44 a.m. on the 22nd. At that moment neither the Northern nor the Southern Hemisphere will tilt toward the sun and Earth will be lighted from pole to pole.

The University of Minnesota offers public viewings of the night sky at its Duluth and Twin Cities campuses. For more information, see:

• Duluth, Marshall W. Alworth Planetarium: www.d.umn.edu/planet

• Twin Cities, Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics: www.astro.umn.edu/outreach/pubnight

• Check out astronomy programs, free telescope events, and planetarium shows at the

University of Minnesota’s Bell Museum: www.bellmuseum.umn.edu/astronomy

• Find U of M astronomers and links to the world of astronomy at: http://www.astro.umn.edu

8/7/24 Contact: Deane Morrison, University Relations, (612) 721-6003.