The Night Sky: A harvest moon as autumn begins

A huge rocket, a ‘megarocket’, the largest ever constructed, will send a capsule on a mission that will round the Moon and return home.

The crewless ‘Orion’ capsule marks the restart of Nasa’s long-stranding affair with the Moon with plans to eventually have a settlement on the lunar surface, before venturing further afield into our solar system and on to Mars.

The countdown continues toward the UK’s first space launch from Spaceport Cornwall in Newquay.

Using a modified Boeing 747, (named ‘Cosmic Girl’), the aircraft will release a rocket at high altitude which will then carry a payload into space.

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit will deliver several small satellites into space.

One of these so-called ‘Cubesats’ will be the first fully Welsh-built satellite named ForgeStar-0, the brainchild of Space Forge, whose headquarters are in Cardiff. A proud moment for Welsh engineering, being part of the first launch into space from UK soil.

James Webb Space Telescope

It’s been a monumental time in the advancement of space exploration as the James Webb Space Telescope saw farther and deeper into our universe than ever before, marking the dawn of a new era.

Together the JWST and the Hubble Space Telescope will continue to peer at the stars and galaxies that surround us.

To commemorate the achievement, astronomer and philatelist Katrin Raynor joins The Night Sky once again with her own look at this special moment in history.

She said: “On July 11 astronomers, scientists, and space enthusiasts everywhere waited excitedly for President Joe Biden to unveil the first deep field image taken by the JWST at a press conference broadcast from the White House.

"The image was breathtaking and perhaps exceeded everyone’s expectations. The photograph is the deepest infrared photograph ever taken of the Universe featuring cluster of galaxies within a southern constellation named Volans, the flying fish.

"The JWST was launched on Christmas Day 2021 and is a collaboration between the European Space Agency, NASA, and the Canadian Space Agency.

"Webb has a much larger mirror than Hubble spanning a diameter of 6.5 metres compared to Hubble’s 2.4 metre mirror. The primary mirror comprises 18 hexagonal mirror segments enabling a larger light collecting area that can produce much more detailed and clearer photographs.

"When I heard the news that the United States Postal Service is to launch a set of stamps to celebrate the JWST I was delighted. It has happened a lot sooner than I expected and will be a welcome addition to any astrophilatelist’s collection.

"The clarity and detail of the new images that Webb can produce should make excellent future stamp issues. It really is an exciting time for astronomy and philately, there is so much to look forward to and not just surrounding the JWST.

"I am hopeful that we will see stamp issues celebrating NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex mission which in 2023 will return samples from the asteroid Bennu to Earth and of course, stamps celebrating humankind’s return to the Moon in 2025 when NASA plan to send the first woman to the lunar surface!"

Autumnal equinox

The Autumnal equinox occurs on Friday, September 23, marking the end of summer. The Sun will cross the celestial equator heading south at 2.04am.

Harvest Moon

Following on from August’s Sturgeon full moon, September sees the Harvest Full Moon on the 10th. The full Moon that occurs nearest to the autumnal equinox is called the Harvest Moon, and from September 8 to the 12, the moon will rise soon after sunset, making for an abundance of bright moonlight early in the evening, which was a traditional aid to assist farmers harvesting the summer crops.

Planets

Mercury will be lost in the evening twilight during early September but right at the end of the month, the innermost planet will appear in the morning sky low in the east about 30 minutes before sunrise.

Venus continues to dazzle as the ‘morning star’ but its dominance is beginning to wane as it sinks lower and lower in the east-northeast before sunrise. However, the planet still makes for a wonderful sight.

Mars is positioned to the south, rising around 10pm. The planet lies in the constellation of Taurus the Bull and on September 16, a waning gibbous Moon passes just above Mars, with the bright star Aldebaran to the lower right, and the Pleiades, (‘Seven Sisters’), to the upper right. Saturn is also positioned to the south, with a waxing gibbous Moon appearing nearby on the nights of September 7 and 8 respectively.

Jupiter steals the show this month planetary-wise, visible all night in the south, and reaching its closest point to the Earth, (opposition), on September 26. Making for a lovely pairing, watch Jupiter and the Moon close together on September 11.

Planetary Occultation

While Uranus is seldom mentioned in The Night Sky, the planet, although difficult to locate, can be seen with the naked eye.

However, the reason for inclusion this month is that Uranus will be involved in a rare event. On the evening of September 14 between 10.27pm and 11.20pm, the Moon will pass in front of Uranus. The last time such an occultation was visible from the UK was back in 1953.

If you have a pair of binoculars or a telescope, the event is worth trying to see, it’s well worth trying to capture the event.

As a very rough guide, Uranus will disappear on the left-hand side of the Moon, just above halfway up the lunar limb. Around 50 minutes or so later, the planet will reappear at the around the same position but to the right-hand side of the Moon.

Uranus will appear to all but the larger telescopes as simply a dot, but it’s well worth remembering that even at its closest to Earth, the planet is still 1.6 billion miles from us, taking 84 Earth years to orbit the Sun.

Nasa's Voyager 2 spacecraft took more than nine years to reach the planet.

Light travels to Uranus to Earth in just under two-and-half hours so when we see the planet, it’s as it was two-and-half hours ago. If you magnify that distance to the stars, it gives you an idea that in some cases the starlight we are seeing now, left the star itself millions of years ago.

Society meetings

Barry Astronomical Society – ‘The Hazards of Asteroid Impacts on Earth – Should We Worry?’ by Matt Griffin - September 19 – 7.15pm – Barry Community Centre.

Moon phases

• First quarter September 3;
• Full Moon September 10;
• Third quarter September 17;
• New Moon September 25.

Sunrise/sunset times

• Start of September: Sun rises at 6.24am. Sets at 7.58pm.
• End of September: Sun rises at 7.10am. Sets at 6.52pm.

Jonathan is a contributor to the BBC Sky at Night magazine with articles also published in Astronomy Now. He has written three books on astronomy, Cosmic Debris; Rare Astronomical Sights and Sounds (which was selected by ‘Choice’ magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2019); and From Cave Art to Hubble, all of which are available from Amazon. Jonathan worked at BBC Radio Wales as their astronomy correspondent and was astronomy and space correspondent for The National, (an online newspaper for Wales). He is currently a columnist at the South Wales Argus, and also a contributor to CAPCOM, an online magazine which promotes astronomy and spaceflight to the general public. He has also presented on commercial radio at Sunshine FM in Worcester, Brunel FM in Swindon, and Bath FM, and has also presented on an astronomy and space dedicated radio station, Astro Radio UK. He is currently at 107.9 GTFM in South Wales. He has also written a book on castles, ‘Fortress Wales’, and was part of the writing team for the BBC Television show, ‘The Fast Show’, which won a BAFTA.