NASA Skywatching Tips September 2023 and NASA TV Scheduled Events
Last Updated on September 5, 2023 by Solar System Ambassador Pam Roller
Here’s an update from our local Solar System Ambassador Pam Roller:
Venus returns to the early morning skies as a bright beacon in the east. The full moon on September 29th at the end of the month is known as the Harvest Moon, and it will be the fourth and final supermoon of the year. As we mentioned in last month’s video, supermoons are full moons that occur when the Moon is near the closest point in its orbit around Earth. This month’s full moon is also known as the Harvest Moon, being the closest full moon to the September equinox.
And if you have access to dark skies away from urban light pollution, you might be able to glimpse the faint, glowing pillar of the zodiacal light. The zodiacal light is sunlight reflecting off of an interplanetary dust cloud. This dust fills the inner solar system out to the inner fringes of the main asteroid belt, just past Mars.
And speaking of asteroids, we’ll soon have opportunities to study one here on Earth, when NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission delivers its samples from asteroid Bennu this month. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected a sample of rocks and dust from the surface of the near-Earth asteroid in 2020, and it’s now approaching Earth to return them for study. As it nears Earth, the spacecraft will release its sample return capsule, which will land in Utah on September 24th.
Included are the phases of the Moon for September.
NASA, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Preston Dyches
NASA Television Upcoming Events
Go to www.nasa.gov
Then click on NASA TV
NASA Television can be streamed through a variety of platforms to televisions, computers, and mobile devices. Most NASA Television programming has closed captions, including live events. All times U.S. Eastern Daylight Time, which equates to UTC-4.
Wednesday, Sept. 6
10:05 a.m. – ISS Expedition 69 in-flight educational event with the South Texas Astronomical Society and NASA flight engineers Frank Rubio and Jasmin Moghbeli
1 p.m.– News conference for the upcoming Psyche mission
Thursday, Sept. 7
10:25 a.m. – ISS Expedition 69 in-flight educational event with the Dames Ferry Elementary School and NASA flight engineers Frank Rubio and Jasmin Moghbeli
Wednesday, Sept. 13
11:10 a.m. – ISS Expedition 69 educational in-flight event with the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and NASA flight engineer Frank Rubio and European Space Agency flight engineer Andy Mogensen
Thursday, Sept. 14
1:30 p.m. – ISS Expedition 69 educational in-flight event with the RI Science Teachers Association and NASA flight engineers Frank Rubio and Jasmin Moghbeli