Saturday: “You know Aries and Cancer and Draco and Libra. Leo and Pisces and Virgo and Hydra. But do you recall, the pointiest asterism of all? Triangulum, the three-sided asterism, had a very pointy shape. And if you didn’t know it, you could say it poked an ape.” Sorry. Some stores have started sending out their Christmas catalogs and that has put me in the mood to modify some Christmas songs. Anyway, Triangulum is a small constellation between the more prominent Andromeda and Aries. Its main feature is a skinny triangle oriented parallel to the ground and two and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the east-northeastern horizon at 10:00 p.m.
Sunday: The September full moon goes by many names. The
Western Abenaki call it the Corn Maker Moon because of the impending harvest.
The Tlingit call it the Child Moon because this is the time of year many animals
wean their young. The Ojibwe call it the Falling Leaves Moon because the trees
are starting to lose their leaves. This month, everyone in the Eastern
Hemisphere will call it the Red Moon because there will be a total lunar
eclipse visible throughout that hemisphere. During a total lunar eclipse, the
Earth’s atmosphere acts like a prism and spreads the Sun’s white light into its
component colors, with the red light hitting the moon. If you have friends in
the Eastern Hemisphere, send them the link https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2025-september-7
for more information.
For more about full moon names, go to https://www.almanac.com/full-moon-names.
Monday: Fomalhaut, the southernmost bright star visible from
the northern USA, is one fist above the south-southeastern horizon at 11:00
p.m. In 2008, Fomalhaut and its surroundings became the first star system with
an extrasolar planet to be directly imaged. See the family photo at https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081114.html.
Tuesday: Saturn is one fist above the east-southeastern
horizon at 9:00 p.m.
Wednesday: Mars and the bright star Spica are less than a
half a fist above the west-southwestern horizon at 8:00 pm. Reddish mars is to
the upper right of the brighter Spica.
Thursday: Earlier this week, you read about Fomalhaut, the
second brightest star with a planet. The brightest star known to have a planet
is Pollux, in the constellation Gemini. (First vs. second brightest is
meaningless here because they are nearly identical in magnitude, 1.15 vs.
1.16.) Pollux is four and a half fists above due east at 5:30 a.m., right below
its “twin” star Castor. Read more about Pollux at https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/meet-pollux-red-giant-exoplanet/.
Friday: Venus is two fists above due east at 6:00 a.m.
Jupiter is four and a half fists above the east-southeastern horizon, to the
lower right of Pollux and Castor.
The positional information in this column about stars and
planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up-to-date information
about the night sky, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.
All times are Pacific Time unless noted.
