8th & 9th September sees Saturn, Venus, Spica, and the crescent moon forming a beautiful ragged line in the sky.
Depending on your location, you may also be able to see Mercury joining the line up low on the horizon.
The above image shows the evening sky looking west as seen from Adelaide at 19:54 pm local time on Sunday September 8.
AND! For many places around Australia on the 8th & 9th, there will be a series ofInternational Space Station fly overs tracking its way across this line-up. A photo op. extravanganza!
Astroblogger, Ian Musgrave in the link below has maps with details of the ISS flyover for Adelaide, Perth Hobart & Melbourne.
Some locations will get to see it two days in a row.
I'm in Brisbane so I'm down for the two days of flyovers too, yaaay! http://bit.ly/18EKRqk
The ISS flyover times are location dependent so take a look at the Heavens Above site for the specific predictions for your area.
Click on the date to get the star chart. http://bit.ly/19w6Kt4
OCCULTATION EVENTS: (Not Australia, but lucky you if you live here)
8th September- Occultation of Venus by the Moon visble from
Argentina and Chile just before and after sunset.
(Kiribati, French Polynesia, Pitcairn, Falkland Islands and southern South America).*
For a map and universal times see here: http://bit.ly/UW8pjk
8th September- Occultation of Spica by the Moon visible from
the Middle East and Europe right around sunset.
(Europe, north Africa, Arabian Peninsula, central Asia and western Russia).*
For a map and universal times see here: http://bit.ly/1fLbool
"This will also present a good chance to see Venus during the daytime, using the nearby crescent Moon as a guide. This is a fun thing to try, and no gear is required! Though Venus may seem tough to find against the bright daytime sky, appearances are deceptive. With an albedo of 67% versus the Moon’s average of 14% Venus is actually brighter than the Moon per square arc second of size!" -Universe Today.
Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/104542/see-venus-and-the-moon-together-in-the-sky-on-september-8/#ixzz2eHKULNRm
* Bracketed locality information from Astronomy 2013 Australia Book.
Yes,Lewis looked good,hope some IIS members saw it,
I cannot get my HA showing pass tonight,yet @astronob has Gold coast details-would not be much difference where in S.E QLD is ?
@astronob
If you consider the Sunny Coast as part of SE Qld, then might have approx 10 degrees diff, not much in timing, maybe a couple seconds ?
I fractionally had the iss show up but only when fully streaching the Histo, which distroyed the rest of the widefield . .
Any which, here a pic with Merc, Spica, Ven, Moon & Saturn
Last edited by astronobob; 10-09-2013 at 10:38 AM.
Checking the data in HA, I actually DID see ISS, but ruled it as something else.
The alignment looked nice last night, but not as nice as previously, as the moon was above Venus etc. Looked more symmetrical going from largest apparent diameter down
I'm glad you got my heads up in the nick of time, Chris.
Just absolutely glorious wasn't it *sigh*. And I can't believe how lucky we were to enjoy this (ISS flyover incl) two nights in a row!
Thanks for sharing the images, no#3 is my favourite.
Andrew, oh I'm so sorry to hear you weren't able to see it
I'll add mine as well. It's just a happy snap with a Sony Cybershot point and shoot camera- I'm no imager, just do it for fun- errr as can be seen with the fuzz around the moon, but oh, I just love how I managed to capture all of them plus Spica pretty and blue. I'm pretty chuffed with this, even if it is a bit ordinary.
Heading the line-up is Saturn up the top.
Thanks Suzy-yes was a bit short notice,I did only read about the ISS bit half an hour before the event,so was a rush job.
Sorry astrobob for typo error,I am surprised the self appointed "IIS police",have not pulled me over and given me brick bats.
I had a fiddle with my capture,and when I have more time and a decent astro PP book,I might even be able to come up with a half decent image from the RAW.
I was not sure where the ISS would be in frame,I was lucky to get an image,will be glad when my 17-55 F2.8 comes back from service centre.
Good to hear you enjoyed event Suzy.I did not see the ISS last night,my HA position gave no data for it,we about 100 Km west of sunshine coast.
