For September 2018, the moon will be last quarter on September 2nd. On September 8, the waning crescent moon will be near the bright star Regulus and just above Mercury in the dawn sky. The moon is new on September 9th. A spectacular triangle of the waxing crescent moon above Venus, with Jupiter to the upper left of them, will be seen on September 12th in the evening sky; by the 13th, the crescent moon is to the upper right of Jupiter. This would be an ideal afternoon to catch the two brightest planets before sunset with your naked eyes, if the skies are very clear. From the moon, look just to its lower left for Jupiter, and farther down to the lower right for brighter Venus. Try using binoculars first to locate them, then see if you can spot them naked eye as well. The first quarter moon is just right of Saturn on September 16th, and to the left of it on the 17th. The waxing gibbous moon is above fading Mars on September 19th. The Autumnal Equinox begins fall at 8:54 p.m. CDT on September 22nd. The full moon, the Harvest Moon, rises at sunset on September 24th. The waning gibbous moon is in the morning sky for the last week of September.

To the west, Venus is retrograding between us and the Sun, changing rapidly evening sky evening. On September 1st, Venus is still 45 degrees west of the setting sun. It is a 40% sunlit crescent, with a disk 30" wide. It is passing just south of Spica in Virgo then. By month’s end, she is much closer to earth, and swells to 47" across, but is a slender crescent now only 16% lit, a phaser easily seen in twilight with hand held binoculars. She is only seven degrees west of the Sun on the 30th, and passes between us and the Sun at inferior conjunction on October 26th. By November she will rise before sunrise in the dawn sky. Jupiter is visible in evening twilight, but getting lower In Libra. At dusk, Saturn lies north of the teapot of Sagittarius, and its rings are tilted wide open for great telescopic views now. The earth overtook Mars in late July, so the Red Planet is fading and getting smaller in the southern evening sky in Capricornus this month. Still, the dust storm on Mars is settling, so telescopic views will give us our best look at the surface of Mars until 2034, the next unusually close opposition.

From the Dipper’s handle, we "arc" SE to bright orange Arcturus, the brightest star of Spring. Spike south to Spica, the hot blue star in Virgo. Jupiter is just NW of Spica, a little brighter and more yellow in color. Note that Spica is now low in the SW, and by September’s end, will be lost in the Sun’s glare due to our annual revolution of the Sun making it appear to move one degree per day eastward. To the Greeks, Spica and Virgo were associated with Persephone, the daughter of Ceres, goddess of the harvest. In their version of "Judge Judy", the beautiful young daughter falls for the gruff, dark god of the underworld, Pluto. He elopes with her, much to the disapproval of mother Ceres, and they marry in his underworld kingdom of Hades…a honeymoon in hell…really, he does love her as well, and the marriage itself works well. But it is the reaction of Ceres that creates alarm. Very despondent over the loss of her young daughter to a fate as bad as death, Ceres abandons the crops, which wither.

Soon famine sets in, and humanity appeals to Jupiter to save us all. Calling all together, Jupiter hears that Ceres wants the marriage annulled, Persephone loves them both, and Pluto wants his mother in law to stop meddling. Solomon style, Jupiter decides to split her up, not literally, but in terms of time. In the compromise (aren’t all marriages so?), when you can see Spica rising in the east in March, it means to plant your peas. For the next six months, she visits upstairs with as very happy mama, and the crops will prosper. But now, as Spica heads west (to the kingdom of death, in most ancient legends) for six months of conjugal bliss with Pluto, it is time to get your corn in the crib. This simple story, told in some form for as long as Noah’s flood, was one of the ways our ancestors 7,000 years ago knew the solar calendar and when to plant and harvest. As you watch Spica fade, thank this star for agriculture, and even our own civilization.

To the south, Antares marks the heart of Scorpius. It appears reddish (its Greek name means rival of Ares or Mars to the Romans) because it is half as hot as our yellow Sun; it is bright because it is a bloated red supergiant, big enough to swallow up our solar system all the way out to Saturn’s orbit! Near the tail of the Scorpion are two fine open clusters, faintly visible to the naked eye, and spectacular in binoculars. The clusters lie to the upper left of the bright double star that marks the stinger in the Scorpion’s tail. The brighter, M-7, is also known as Ptolemy’s Cluster, since he included it in his star catalog about 200 AD.

East of the Scorpion’s tail is the teapot shape of Sagittarius, which marks the heart of our Milky Way galaxy. Looking like a cloud of steam coming out of the teapot’s spout is the fine Lagoon Nebula, M-8, easily visible with the naked eye. Saturn sits about 6 degrees north of the teapot of Sagittarius this fall.

The brightest star of the northern hemisphere, Vega dominates the NE sky. Binoculars reveal the small star just to the NE of Vega, epsilon Lyrae, as a nice double. Larger telescopes at 150X reveal each of this pair is another close double, hence its nickname, "The Double Double". This is fine sight under steady seeing conditions over 150X with scopes 4" or larger. Our featured object of the month lies at the other end of the parallelogram of Lyra, Between the two bottom stars; the Ring Nebula, marked "M-57" is a smoke ring of gas and dust expelled by a dying red giant star while its core collapsed to a white dwarf. A similar fate is expected for our own sun in perhaps five billion more years.

To the northeast of Vega is Deneb, the brightest star of Cygnus the Swan. At the other end of the "northern Cross" that makes up the body of Cygnus is Alberio, the finest and most colorful double star in the sky. To the south is Altair, the brightest star of Aquila the Eagle, the third member of the three bright stars that make the Summer Triangle so obvious in the NE these clear September evenings. Binoculars should be taken to the deep sky gazes to sweep the rich portion of the Galaxy now best placed overhead in this area.