The M.A.S. Newsletter
Journal of the Mauritius Astronomical Society
September 99
The Next Meeting:
...on Friday 24th of September at 19:30, Collège du Saint Esprit, Quatre Bornes.
This will be a general
observation night.
The sky this month:
You can follow and photograph Mars' progression through the constellation of the Scorpio and beyond into Ophiuchus. Mars and Antares are quite close and can easily be compared.
Jupiter and Saturn are now visible over the eastern horizon shortly before 23:00. Jupiter is the brightest and is followed by Saturn which is about 12° to the east (below) of Jupiter.
Venus rises at about 4:00. The planet is so bright (magnitude -4.5) that it remains visible in the sky even in broad daylight. Venus is 20° (about the span of the hand held at arm's length) to the west of the Sun. Being only 20° illuminated, the planet will show as a small crescent even through a pair of binoculars magnifying 10 times.
Mercury is back in the evening sky (in the constellation of the Virgin) setting about an hour after sunset on the 25th.
At 20:15 on the 27th, the Moon
rises close to Jupiter, and the following night (observable at about 21:20), is close to
Saturn.
Antares:
Antares is the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpio. Its name is derived from the Greek "rival of Mars" - a reference to its noticeable colour similarity to Mars. It is a red supergiant with a diameter 740 times the Sun's and shines as bright as 10,000 Suns. At a distance of 700 light years from the Sun, Antares is one of the two brightest red supergiants visible in the night sky. The other being Betelgeuse in Orion which is 400 light years away.
Serge Florens, Secretary