GEORGE NEWS - The month starts with a waxing Moon just before first quarter on the 2nd, with the full Moon following on the 9th. The autumn equinox occurs on the 20th and is the time when there are as many hours of darkness (night) as there are daylight hours.
Many regard this as the beginning of autumn, but we all know that the best days of the year are still ahead of us!
Also from this day on, the Sun rises and sets progressively further north of east, and is lower in the midday sky each day, till the solstice in June. It is the time of year when the rate at which we lose daylight is at its fastest.
At the beginning of the month, sunrise and sunset are at 06:20 and 19:07, while on the 31st they are at 06:45 and 18:29 respectively: we lose just over an hour in the course of the month.
On the 10th, the day after full Moon, it is at perigee (closest to Earth) at 359 100km. This is quite close, so we can expect a higher than normal spring tide. In contrast, its distance at apogee (furthest from Earth) on the 24th, during new Moon, will be 406 700km away.
Away from the city lights, the evening sky is really good! The Milky Way stretches across the sky from north-west to south-east and is to me still a spectacular sight. Of course we are a part of that "city of stars" and thus can only see a part of it.
Our Sun is one of over 200 billion others and is about 30 million light years away from the centre of our galaxy, which is hidden by dust, in the constellation of Sagittarius. When your eyes have adapted to the darkness, large black dust bands are visible in the Milky Way. Interestingly, the Australian Aborigines focus on these bands and "see" an emu!
isiLimela (Pleiades) is now low above the north-western horizon and Orion is losing its dominance in the northern sky.
By month's end it will be lying on its side just above the western horizon, with Sirius unmistakably bright above it.
At around 19:15, only the brightest stars will be visible and this is an ideal time to try and identify them. The rectangular shape formed by Rigel, Sirius, Procyon and Betelgeuse was known as "Magakala" to the Tswana. When this grouping was visible in the early evening it was time for them to start harvesting crops.
An equilateral triangle known as the Great Southern Triangle is formed by Sirius, very bright and high up in the north; the red giant Betelgeuse, rightmost star in Orion; and Procyon, the little Dog Star, to the right of Betelgeuse.
Aldebaran, the reddish orange star to the upper right of isiLimela, is also easily visible. Take a look an hour later and see how many more stars there are and how easy it is to recognise the brighter ones.
To the lower right of Orion are the twins in Gemini, Castor and Pollux. Looking south the Southern Cross and the Pointers, Alpha and Beta Centaurus (called Rigil Kentaurus and Hadar by the ancient Arabs) are now well up in the south-east (about 9 o'clock using the clock face system for positioning objects).
Alpha Cen is of course a double star that could be seen with even a small telescope. They circle each other every 81 years or so and are about 4,26 light years away. High up, almost overhead, is Canopus, the second brightest star in the sky, a yellow supergiant about 74 light years away.
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