Watch for these five celestial events in September!

Another month is upon us, and the StormTracker 59 team is here to share a few neat celestial events taking place in our region that you and your family can enjoy!

1) View Mercury in the Sky!

On September 5th, Mercury is at its Greatest Western Elongation. This means for us that Mercury will be at its highest point in the night sky at about 18 degrees. It’ll be a little difficult to view from a valley but especially on a ridgeline, Mercury will be visible in the night sky just before sunrise, with best viewing during the morning of September 5th.

2) More Planet Viewing – Check Out Saturn

Saturn will be Opposition on September 8th. This is the time of the year that Saturn is brightest because it is opposite to the sun in relation to Earth, which means Saturn will stand bright in the opposite night sky to the sun. Saturn will be easily viewable to naked eye – just look toward Aquarius. If you have some equipment, view Saturn’s rings pretty easily this time of year with a telescope.

3) Full Moon – Supermoon!

This month’s Full Moon is the Harvest Moon, which is a supermoon which will take place late in the night on September 17th. Because of this, the moon will look slightly larger and brighter than normal. This is the first of three supermoons for the year.

4) Partial Lunar Eclipse

A partial lunar eclipse will take place during the night of September 18th, peaking in viewability at 10:44 PM. A partial lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes through Earth’s penumbra – its partial shadow – and a piece of it passes through the umbra, or Earth’s darkest shadow. Although partial lunar eclipses are awesome, this will be a particularly shallow one – you’ll be able to see darkness around the top side of the moon, but otherwise, the rest of the moon will just appear slightly darker.

5) Autumn Equinox

The Autumnal Equinox takes place on September 22nd at 8:44 AM – this is when the Earth’s axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun, meaning an equal amount of daylight and darkness at all latitudes.

Have fun checking out the night sky this month! Please head over to our website here and upload your photos with #WeatherTogether!

What is #WeatherTogether?

Launched in 2022, #WeatherTogether is a dedicated community photo album hosted by 59News and StormTracker 59 to allow viewers to submit weather photos directly to us that we can share on all our platforms on-air or online. These photos are also showcased in our web-based photo album on our site for all to see and enjoy! Any photo of interesting weather, storm damage, snowfall, pets playing in puddles or snow and the likes are all welcomed! We hope to use this to showcase the beauty of the two Virginias through the eyes of our viewers and the vastly dynamic weather we see because we think there is no place more beautiful than here.

See for yourself the collection of photos already submitted or submit a few of your own, here.

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