The Sky over Berlin

September 2010

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Overview		Events
	The Starry Sky in September Sunrise and Sunset The Phases of the Moon The Planets		Uranus at Opposition Mercury at the Morning Sky

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Overview

Sunrise and Sunset

...with astronomical dusk/dawn for 52°31'30" North and 13°18'45" East at 3m above sealevel (StarryNight 2.0)

		1.: 03:08     11.: 03:32     21.: 03:54     1.10.: 04:13 (MET)
		1.: 05:19     11.: 05:36     21.: 05:52     1.10.: 06:09 (MET)
		1.: 18:53     11.: 18:30     21.: 18:06     1.10.: 17:43 (MET)
		1.: 21:04     11.: 20:33     21.: 20:04     1.10.: 19:38 (MET)

The Phases of the Moon

1.: 18:22

8.: 11:33

15.: 6:50

23.: 10:17 (MET)

Die Planeten

		in the 2nd half of the month visible at the morning sky in Sextans/Virgo/Leo
		barely visible at the evening sky in Virgo/Libra
		invisible at the evening sky in Virgo/Libra
		visible at the nightly sky in Pisces
		invisible at the evening sky in Virgo
		visible at the nightly sky in Pisces
		visible at the nightly sky in Capricornus
		visible at the evening sky in Sagittarius

Illustrations: StarryNight 2.0 & -- jd --

Events

Source of the Celestial Events:

Hans-Ulrich Keller (ed.), "Kosmos Himmelsjahr 2010", Franck-Kosmos Verlag, 2009

Uranus and its Moons, NASA collage

Uranus at Opposition

Jupiter at Opposition - Jupiter close to Uranus

Uranus is the seventh planet of the Solar system and was discovered in 1781 by Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel. Although theoretically visible with the naked eye this is only valid for observation at ideal conditions with a good eye. THis month Uranus is at opposition to the Sun, so it has its best visibility with an opposition brightnes of 5^m.7 and a virtual diameter of 3.7 arc seconds. Its real diameter is 51118 kilometer and with this its about four times bigger than Earth. Despite its opposition position one would hardly find it at the sky, but this year Jupiter can be used as a finding aid:

The movement of Uranus and Jupiter in September 2009

Both Jupiter and Uranus are moving retrograde within the constellation of Pisces, and shortly before their opposition position they have their second approach in a series of a triple conjunction. At the 19th of September Jupiter and Uranus are only 0.8 degrees away from each other. With a brightness of -2^m.9 Jupiter is brightly visible even at the city sky. Its virtual diamaeter is about fifty arc seconds. With a small swing of the telescope Uranus will appear North of Jupiter. So the one who has never seen Uranus at this opposition there will be the best conditions. Uranus and Jupiter reach their opposition position at the 21st of September. At that day Uranus rises at 18:08h MET (19:08h MET DST) and sets at the next day at about 6h MET (7h MET DST). At the 23rd of September the nearly Full Moon will come close the planetary pair:

Uranus, Jupiter and Moon at September 23 at the Berlin sky

The distance between Uranus and Moon at 4h MET (5h MET DST) is 5.7 degrees. One hour later in the morning dawn the distance will shrink to 5.5 degrees. The distance Jupiter-Moon at that time will be 6.2 degrees. Another hour later Uranus and Jupiter will be set already.

At the next encounter with the Moon Jupiter and Uranus have moved away from each other again:

Uranus, Jupiter and Moon at October 20 at the Berlin sky

Then Uranus will be about 2.7 degrees North of Jupiter. The distance Uranus-Moon will be 7.2 degrees, the distance Jupiter-Moon will be 6.5 degrees. Uranus has risen at the previous day at 16:12h MET (17:12h MET DST) and will set at that day at 4h MET (5h MET DST).

The next rendezvous with the Moon will take place at the 16th of November:

Uranus, Jupiter and Moon at November 16 at the Berlin sky

The minimum distance between Uranus and Moon wil be 5.8 degrees at 23h MET, the distance Jupiter-Moon will be 8.1 degrees at the same time. Uranus and Jupiter will be separated by 3.4 degrees. At the following time this distance will shrink again, because Jupiter will slow down its retrograde motion and is at its end of the opposition loop at the 19th of November. After this it will move prograde again and will approach Uranus again, which reaches its end of the opposition loop at the 6th of December. The third encounter between Uranus and Jupiter will happen in January 2011 with a minimum distance of 0.5 degrees between the two planets...

Mercury at the Morning Sky

This month Mercury will appear at the morning sky. At the 3rd of September the most inner planet will have its inferior conjunction with the Sun and then it will rise fast into the Eastern sky. Its visibility will begin around the 15th of September. At the 19th it will reach its greatest Western elongation of about 18 degrees:

Mercury in the second half of September at the Berlin Eastern sky

It will be about -0^m.3 magnitudes bright (according to the Kosmos-Himmelsjahr, according to StarryNight -2^m.21). Mercury will rise at that day at 4:04h MET (5:04h MET DST) and with this more than 1 1/2 hours before the Sun. After this it will approach the Sun again and from the 29th of September it can be erased from the list of visible planets, again.

The Earthen probe MESSENGER is currently on its way to Mercury, and its supposed to reach an orbit around the fastest planet of the Solar system at March 18, 2011.

created: 2010-02-01 from German version
modified: 2010-02-02 translated

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