The Sky This Week, 2013 September 10 - 17 A great week to view the Moon!

Lunar craters Copernicus (left) and Eratosthenes
Imaged Apollo 11 PRG/NR/PR

The Moon skirts the southern horizon this week, waxing to a fat
gibbous phase as she moves through late summer's constellations and
into the autumnal sky. First quarter occurs on the 12th at 1:08 pm
Eastern Daylight Time. She passes several degrees north of the bright
star Antares on the evening of the 11th, then drifts through the heart
of the summer Milky Way over the next two nights passing above the
"teapot" asterism of Sagittarius on the night of the 13th. From there
she will drift through the sparser starfields of Capricornus and
Aquarius.

The Moon fills a prominent gap in the sky for owners of small
telescopes. The early evening's two bright planets are gone by the end
of evening twilight and Jupiter doesn't rise until the wee hours.
Despite her low altitude, Luna waxes through her best phases for
visual exploration, starting the week as a fat crescent and ending in
a gibbous. From night to night you can watch the "terminator" line
creep across the lunar landscape, revealing a new set of cratered
vistas for each evening's expeditions. Even though her features are
essentially permanent, I always enjoy visiting old familiar landmarks.
Subtle changes in illumination from lunation to lunation often reveal
details that I've overlooked or never noticed in the past. One of my
favorite parts of the Moon to study is the area between the prominent
craters Copernicus and Eratosthenes, on the southern edge of the great
impact basin called mare Imbrium. These craters will be on the
terminator on the nights of the 13th and 14th. Between them is a field
of dozens of small "secondary" impact craters caused by the debris
from the impact that created Copernicus that rained down on the
surrounding landscape. They bear a mute testimony to the force of the
blast that created the crater, especially when you realize that the
diameter of Copernicus is almost twice the distance from Washington,
DC to Baltimore!

Despite their low altitude and poor telescopic visibility, you should
still take a few minutes in the early evening to watch Venus and
Saturn in the southwestern twilight sky. Dazzling Venus will catch up
to the much dimmer glow of Saturn and pass just three degrees south of
the ringed planet on the evenings of the 16th and 17th. Both planets
will set at the end of evening twilight, but Venus will slowly gain
ground on the advancing Sun and gradually become more prominent in the
late autumn and early winter. Saturn, alas, will steadily fall toward
the Sun's glare over the next several weeks, becoming increasingly
difficult to spot. We'll have to wait until next spring to see him
grace the evening skies again.

Jupiter is still best seen in the early morning hours, but he's making
steady progress towards an appearance in the evening sky. Old Jove now
rises at around 1:30 am EDT and may be found high in the east as
morning twilight starts to brighten the horizon. As we enter the last
few weeks of daylight time it would be worthwhile to grab a few early
morning peeks at the giant planet for a preview of things to come when
he reaches opposition in January. His roiling cloud belts are putting
on a good show and the famous Great Red Spot is more prominent than it
has been for many years.

Mars may be found about halfway between Jupiter and the eastern
horizon before dawn. The red planet is now located about halfway
between the Twin Stars of Gemini, Castor and Pollux, and Regulus, the
heart of Leo, the Lion. If you have binoculars you can watch Mars pull
away from the scattered star cluster known as the Beehive in the dim
constellation of cancer, the Crab. Mars will continue his eastward
trek against the background stars, taking aim at Regulus. He will
continue to travel eastward into the sprawling constellation of Virgo
by the springtime, reaching opposition near the bright star Spica in
early April.

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