2023-09-18 17:10:03
Let’s discover the beauty with the rings: Saturn. The planet Saturn, measuring approximately 120,000 km in diameter, will be clearly visible high in the sky at the start of the night. Difficult to miss, it will be the brightest point in the constellation Aquarius, located between the square of Pegasus and Capricorn. If you don’t want to miss it, the planet will be very close to the Moon on the night of September 26 to 27.
With the naked eye, you will of course not see the rings but if you have a good pair of binoculars magnifying 15 times for example, you should see a point with an elongated shape. With a small bezel, the rings become obvious. In a larger telescope, the rings, the space between the rings and the planet are clearly visible. These rings, mainly made up of dust and ice, extend in the form of a disk 360,000 km wide and only a few meters thick! For the record, it was in 1655 that the astronomer Christian Huygens suggested that Saturn is surrounded by years. In 1675, Jean Dominique Cassini, then director of the Paris observatory, discovered that the rings were composed of a large number of concentric rings. If you have a telescope, you will also be able to see the satellite Titan, Saturn’s largest satellite, as a small point of light accompanying Saturn. As a reminder, Saturn is still accompanied by more than 140 moons.
Other planets to observe
While waiting for the middle of the night, it will be impossible to miss the planet Jupiter, the brightest point in the sky located in the constellation Aries between Pisces and Taurus. A nice rapprochement with the waning gibbous Moon is not to be missed on the night of October 1st to 2nd. If you’re an early riser, before sunrise, you won’t miss the planet Venus, high on the horizon in the constellation Cancer. A beautiful rapprochement with a pretty lunar crescent will be observable on the morning of October 10. Finally, a little more difficult, around September 20 you should see Mercury quite close to the eastern horizon just before sunrise
The little challenge of the month
On the evening of October 8, you should see the draconid shooting stars. Around October 9, my birthday, the Earth passes through a cloud of dust left by the comet Giacobini-Zinner. This swarm is not very active and you should see at most 10 meteors/hour coming from the Dragon constellation. However, historically this swarm could have been much more impressive and even caused showers of several thousand meteors per hour, as was the case in 1933 and 1946. I therefore suggest that you go out at the start of the night and watch the sky, a surprise will await you
See you in October
I remind you that a new astronomical telescope is once again in play thanks to our partners SSVI and RFI. To participate, send to our page Facebook Astronomy Africa your most beautiful photos or videos or even a pretty text that you have written. The winner will be announced on October 15. Good observations. Good skies to all and remember the sky is the biggest screen, just look up.
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