After an eventful summer that featured a full solar eclipse, the Perseids meteor shower and a nearly full lunar eclipse, the September night sky offers plenty for amateur astronomers to enjoy before autumn fully sets in. The month begins quietly but ramps up quickly, delivering meteor showers, planetary pairings and easy-to-spot constellations.
Because the sky shifts from month to month, September brings its own lineup of events worth marking on the calendar. Here’s what to watch for, whether you’re tracking meteors, following the moon or learning to identify constellations.
Two Meteor Showers Bookend the Month
September features two meteor showers, one wrapping up at the start of the month and another beginning near the end.
The Aurigids is a minor meteor shower fueled by comet C/1911 N1 Kiess. It begins in late August, lasts about four or five days, and peaks on the evening of Sept. 1. To find it, look toward the Auriga constellation, the radiant point where the meteors appear to originate. Auriga rises from the northeastern horizon shortly after midnight on Sept. 1. As a minor shower, the Aurigids typically produce one meteor at a time, even at peak.
The second event is the Southern Taurids, one of the longest-running meteor showers of the year. It stretches exactly two months, from Sept. 20 to Nov. 20, and is fueled by comet 2P/Encke, the same source behind the Northern Taurids, which begin in October. The Southern Taurids won’t peak until early November, so most meteors will appear later in the season, though a stray meteor may cross the late-September sky. Both Taurids showers have “swarm years” when activity is much stronger, with the next one predicted for 2032. These meteors appear to come from the Taurus constellation, which rises from the eastern horizon shortly after 1 a.m. in late September, next to Auriga.
The Moon Meets the Planets
Over an eight-day stretch, the moon passes close to nearly every visible planet in the night sky.
The sequence begins in the early morning of Sept. 7, when the moon and Mars rise together over the northeastern horizon shortly after 3 a.m. local time. The moon follows Mars across the sky for the rest of the night, so spotting one makes it easy to locate the other.
When the moon rises the next morning on Sept. 8, it’s trailed by Jupiter, placing the two side by side and easy to see. The most difficult pairing involves Mercury and the moon, which meet right at sunset on Sept. 12. Observers will have only a few minutes to catch both before they drop below the horizon.
The final meetup comes on Sept. 14-15, when the moon lines up with Venus, again right at sunset and shortly after. These planetary pairings are fairly common as the moon moves along its path across the sky.
