In September's astronomy podcast, you'll learn what's special about the ringed planet Saturn, now visible in the evening sky.

September marks the transition away from northern summer to autumn, astronomically speaking. The equinox falls on September 22nd at 4:02 pm Eastern Daylight Time.

Saturn in late September
After sunset, look for Saturn among the stars of Scorpius. Don't confuse it with Antares, to its lower right.
Sky & Telescope

This month we say good-bye to Jupiter, lingering very low in the southwest

before disappearing into twilight. But Saturn is up in the south right after sunset. If you’ve got a small telescope, you’ll be able to resolve its rings. September 15th will be an important day involving Saturn — listen to the podcast to learn why!

High overhead, Vega, Deneb, and Altair form the Summer Triangle, which is easy to spot no matter how much light pollution you have. Vega also anchors the magnitude (brightness) scale that astronomers have used for 2,000 years.

There's much more to see in the evening sky. To learn more, listen to or download our monthly astronomy podcast below. It provides a 6½-minute-long tour of the stars and planets that you'll see this month.

Comments


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DFHuieGA64

September 13, 2017 at 7:25 pm

Thanks for the information on Saturn. Brand new to the hobby of astronomy and looking to learn a bit about the night sky. Purchased NightWatch by Terrence Dickenson and registered with Sky and Telescope so figured I am off to a good start.

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Cee Gee

September 15, 2017 at 10:14 pm

Kelly, while I love the sunset info, I work graveyard shift and am usually asleep come that time. How about early morning info along with sunset scenarios?
From 4 a.m. onward brings up some great old standards : Orion, Venus (getting later each day), Pleiades, etc. but it would be interesting to know what else is up there in plain eye view.

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