This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2024 Sept. 28 – Oct. 5
This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2024 Sept. 28 – Oct. 5
The Major League Baseball playoff season kicks off, or rather throws out the first pitch, this week and they always arrange to have the Great Square of Pegasus form a diamond in the eastern sky for evening games. At home plate is Algenib, the third brightest star of the constellation. Who’s on first? Yes, that is Markab, the brightest star of Pegasus. On second base we have its second brightest luminary, Sheat, which is probably what he mutters when he makes an error. On third is a star brighter than the other three, Alpheratz, who was traded to Andromeda but still likes to whip the ball around the horn with his former teammates.
Trailing off toward the dugout from third is a string of stars that forms the left side of Princess Andromeda. The second in the string is no second string player. Mirach is nearly as bright as Alpheratz, sometimes brighter, and it shows a distinct orange colour in binoculars. A little more than one binocular field above the string from Mirach will bring M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, into your view, and from a dark sky that is a view you don’t want to miss. It might resemble a pool of champagne on the clubhouse floor of the World Series champions. Why am I seeing more blue jays at my feeders?
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise is at 7:19 and sunset will occur at 7:09, giving 11 hours, 50 minutes of daylight. Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 7:28 and set at 6:56, giving 11 hours, 28 minutes of daylight.
The Moon is new on Wednesday and near Venus in the early evening sky next Saturday. Saturn is at its highest and best for observing at midnight, around which time Mars will be rising. Jupiter rises around 10 pm midweek, and at 10:45 Tuesday evening telescope users might see its moon Ganymede disappear behind the planet and emerge from the other side two hours later. Mercury is at superior conjunction on Monday. For two weeks beginning on Tuesday rural observers can look for the subtle wedge of the zodiacal light in the east 90 to 60 minutes before sunrise,
Tune in to the Sunday Night Astronomy Show at 8 pm on the YouTube channel and Facebook page of Astronomy by the Bay. The Saint John Astronomy Club meets in the Rockwood Park Interpretation Centre on October 5 at 7 pm.