Moon, Jupiter, Antares on September 17 and 18
the nebula around the red supergiant Antares
Photo and excerpt:
AAO, UK Schmidt, David Malin
Monday, September 17.
At nightfall tonight, the waxing crescent moon points out two “royal” heavenly bodies.
One is Jupiter, the king of planets. And the other is the star Antares, known since antiquity as one of four royal stars. Jupiter outshines Antares by a lot. This dazzling world is so bright that you can’t miss it in the evening twilight sky.
Though Antares pales in contrast to Jupiter, it still ranks as one of the brightest stars in the sky. And remember that Antares only looks dimmer than Jupiter, because it’s so much farther away. If you could see it up close, youd find that Antares is one of the galaxy’s largest stars. Thirteen hundred Earths could fit inside Jupiter, and the volume of our local star, the sun, is 1,000 times greater than that. But many millions of suns could fit inside Antares. This gigantic star lies some 600 light-years away, in contrast to only 8 light-minutes for the sun, and 44 light-minutes for Jupiter right now.
As darkness falls tonight and tomorrow, look for Jupiter and Antares near the waxing crescent moon in the west after sunset. For most of the world, the moon, Jupiter and Antares set during the evening hours tonight. Far south of the equator, they set after midnight.
The planet Jupiter by Bill Arnett
Antares, the constellation Scorpius’ brightest star by Jim Kaler
Pleiades star cluster (M45) by Steven Gibson
Rising/setting times of the sun, moon and planets – Old Farmer’s Almanac
Rising/setting times of the sun, moon, planets and bright stars – US Naval Observatory
For Bruce,
Now I see .It is Antares. Lovely. Thank you. Fendell