ByJamie Carter,
Senior Contributor.
Each Monday, I pick out North America’s celestial highlights for the week ahead (which also apply to mid-northern latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere). Check my main feed for more in-depth articles on stargazing, astronomy, eclipses and more.
September begins with planets and star clusters sharing the same field of view before dawn, and ends with a bright full moon, the Corn Moon, rising during dusk. With Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter gracing the morning sky and the night sky's constellations heralding the shift toward fall, here’s everything you need to know about stargazing and astronomy this week:
Have you seen the “planet parade” before sunrise? About an hour and a half before sunrise, look low to the east-northeast to spot dazzling Venus nestled near the Beehive Cluster (M44) in Cancer. Around an hour before sunrise, Mercury rises below Venus, with Jupiter higher in the east — forming a gentle planetary line. Use binoculars to reveal the Beehive’s delicate stars and help find Mercury.
