Saturday, September 21, 2024

Bright Moon Kisses the Seven Sisters (overnight)

When the still very full and bright, waning gibbous moon rises over the rooftops to the east on Saturday evening, September 21, the bright little cluster known as the Pleiades, the Seven Sisters, the Hole in the Sky, Matariki, and Messier 45 will be sparkling several finger widths to the moon's lower left - close enough for them to share the view in binoculars. To better see the stars, which are spread over an area nearly four times larger than
the moon, hide the moon beyond the upper right edge of your binoculars' field of view. Skywatchers viewing the scene later at night, and in more westerly time zones, will see the moon approach closer to the cluster, pass among its stars around 11:00 UT, and then begin to move off to their east. The faint
blue speck of Uranus will also be positioned less than a palm's width to the right (or 5 degrees to the celestial SSW) of the Pleiades.

(Data Courtesy of Starry Night)
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