Here’s a brief look at what’s going on in the Mile High City this week.
September 15:
- Find the waning crescent Corn Moon near the Shoe-Buckle Cluster (M35), an open star cluster in Gemini in the eastern sky: 2:00 AM
September 16:
- Look for the waning crescent Corn Moon near Jupiter, Castor and Pollux in the constellation Gemini in the eastern sky: 2:00 AM
- NASA Night Sky Network Webinar Series: Secrets of the Sun: Developing New Ways to Observe Our Closest Star with Becca Robinson: Youtube Livestream: 7:00 PM
September 17:
- Catch the waning crescent Corn Moon near the Beehive Cluster (M44), an open star cluster in the constellation Cancer in the eastern sky: 3:45 AM
- Space Telescope Science Institue: Alien Skies: Exploring Distant Exoplanet Atmospheres with Webb: Livestream via Youtube: 5:00 PM
- DAS Astrophotography Special Interest Group (ASIG) Advanced Image Processing: Virtual meeting via Zoom (check your email or Slack): 7:00 PM
September 18:
- World Migratory Bird Day – Dark Skies and Birds: Virtual program via Zoom (registration required): 12:00 PM
- Standley Lake Stargazing Virtual Program: Zoom Virtual Meeting: 6:00 PM
September 19 (Dark Sky Weekend):
- Conjunction of the waning crescent Corn Moon, Venus and Regulus in the eastern sky in Leo: 5:00 AM
-
Colorado Springs Astronomical Society’s September Skies Star Stare begins – through September 21st: Starry Meadows, Gardner, CO (registration required)
- Okie-Tex Star Party begins – through September 27th: Camp Billy Joe, Kenton, OK (registration required)
- Standley Lake Stargazing Star Party: Coalton Trailhead, Superior, CO (registration required)
September 20 (Dark Sky Weekend):
- Moon at Descending Node: 5:13 PM
September 21 (Dark Sky Weekend):
- Look for Saturn and Neptune at opposition, positioning the earth between the sun and these two far away planets makes them appear extremely bright in the night sky. While Saturn is visible to the naked eye, Neptune requires optical aid. However, you should be able to view both planets in binoculars under dark skies: 1:15 AM
- New Hunter’s Moon: 1:54 PM
- City of Boulder – Dark Skies & Deep Space: Saturn at Opposition & Autumn Equinox Star Party: Altona, CO (registration required): 6:30 PM
Check Out These Helpful Guides from DAS:
- Where to Explore the 2025 Denver Night Skies
- When to Explore the 2025 Denver Night Skies
- What to Explore in the 2025 Denver Night Skies
Sky Map
- The pdf map of the night sky from SkyMaps.com can be found at https://www.skymaps.com/skymaps
This Week’s Meteoric Activity:
You can keep track of the activity of meteor showers as well as those beyond the limits of visual observing by visiting the NASA Meteor Shower Portal.
- Anthelion (ANT): 1:00 AM in northeastern Aquarius: 2 per hour.
- chi Cygnids (CCY): first few hours after sunset in southern Cygnus: 1 per hour.
- eta Eridanids (ERI): last hour before dawn in western Eridanus: 1 per hour.
- August beta Piscids (BPI) aka Northern delta Aquariids (NDA): 3:00 AM in western Pisces: 1 per hour
- September epsilon Perseids (SPE): last hour before dawn in eastern Andromeda: 1 per hour
- nu Eridanids (NUE): last hour before dawn in northeastern Eridanus: 1 per hour
- September Lyncids (SLY): last hour before dawn in northwestern Lynx: 1 per hour
