Astronomy - September 2015

This map unfolds the entire night sky from sunset (at right) until sunrise (at left).

Arrows and colored dots show motions and locations of solar system objects during the month.

The planets

in their orbits

Arrows show the inner planets’

monthly motions and dots depict

the outer planets’ positions at mid-

month from high above their orbits.

Jupiter’s moons

Io

Europa

S

WE

N

Ganymede

Callisto

ILLUSTRATIONS BY

ASTRONOMY

: ROEN KELLY

COM

BOÖ

SER

VIR

LIB

LUP

SCO

ARA

TEL

SGR

SCT

AQL SER OPH

HER

DRA

LY R

CYG

VUL

SGE

DEL

CAP

ANT

CEN

CRV

CRT HYA

SEX

LEO

CVn UMa

CrA

LMi

CrB

Objects visible in the evening

Sun

Early evening

Pluto

Saturn

Ceres

Mercury

A partial solar eclipse occurs

September 13 across parts of

southern Africa and Antarctica

24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

Callisto

Europa

Io

Ganymede

Jupiter

Mercury

Greatest eastern elongation

is September 4

Ceres

Mars

Uranus

Neptune

Saturn

Pluto

Venus

Jupiter

Jupiter

Earth

Autumnal equinox

is September 23

WWW.ASTRONOMY.COM 41

Dots display positions

of Galilean satellites at

7 A.M. EDT on the date

shown. South is at the

top to match

the view

through a

telescope.

To locate the Moon in the sky, draw a line from the phase shown for the day straight up to the curved blue line.

Note: Moons vary in size due to the distance from Earth and are shown at 0h Universal Time.

The planets

in their orbits

Arrows show the inner planets’

monthly motions and dots depict

the outer planets’ positions at mid-

month from high above their orbits.