First of all, just a little follow-up on the Perseid Meteor Shower that occurred on the nights of Aug. 11-12. I attempted to photograph any bright meteors at midnight on Aug. 12 and I was very disappointed. I stayed up from midnight until 3 a.m. in a vain attempt to photograph meteors so that I could share any good images with all of you. I recorded exactly two quite faint meteors on a clear night. In Siloam Springs, I can report first-hand that the shower was a dud! I know that from other parts of the U.S., many people had good luck seeing plenty of bright meteors -- their images are on the Internet on several sites. Not so in Siloam Springs ...
On Sept. 21, we will have the Autumn Equinox -- the herald of autumn for the northern hemisphere.
The news for seeing good things in the sky for September is two easily seen planets -- Mars and Saturn. Jupiter will set close to the Sun as the month comes on and Venus can just be seen making its rise into greater prominence as the month proceeds. But ... Jupiter and Venus will be very hard to see because they are both so close to the western horizon after sunset.
Mars and Saturn will still be quite good positions to view with small telescopes. The constellation Scorpio is directly south at 9 p.m. It helps to find Mars and Saturn if you know this constellation, but even if you don't, Mars and Saturn will also be directly south, above the bright star Antares, in Scorpio. If I didn't know how to find them, I would go out on the Internet and type in 'Position of Mars and Saturn in September, 2016.' This should result in a map of the sky where these two planets are located.
Mars will be the brighter of these two planets and it will appear tawny or reddish if you look for it with binoculars. A bright star, Antares, is a red supergiant lying just below Mars and it is reddish too. However, Antares will twinkle but Mars will not. I have seen Mars clearly with my 10-inch 'scope and the southern polar cap is pretty easy to see, as well as some dark markings on the surface. Seeing any detail on Mars' surface is always a challenge because these details are low in contrast and atmospheric turbulence on Earth makes these details hard to see.
Saturn will lie just 'above' Mars and the rings are the wonder to see! Seeing the rings of Saturn will take a telescope of about 4 inches in aperture and if you have a bigger 'scope than this, all to the good.
The Milky Way will be at its best in September if you have a dark, clear night. You can see its brightest portion directly south at 9 p.m. and, facing south, you can see it extend back over your left shoulder about 3/4 back to the northern horizon. If you can see it, it really is beautiful to cruise it with binoculars.
As autumn comes on, we often have some of the clearest, darkest skies we can see from Northwest Arkansas. However, winter will be much less friendly to night sky observers, so get out there now and look at the universe now!
-- Dr. David Cater is a former faculty member of JBU. Email him at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
Community on 08/31/2016