Daily Guide
A quick guide to the night sky – written by NASA experts.
September Skywatching Highlights
- All month – Venus sits low in the west following sunset. Saturn's visible all night. Jupiter and Mars rise in the couple of hours after midnight and are visible in the southeast before sunrise.
- September 1-7 – If you're in the Northern Hemisphere, you can spot Mercury this week during morning twilight if you can find an unobstructed view toward the east. It appears low in the east just before dawn.
- September 2 – New moon
- September 14 – Join fellow Moon enthusiasts around the world for International Observe the Moon Night tonight! Find an event or simply observe at home. Details at moon.nasa.gov/observe.
- September 16 – The Moon leads Saturn across the sky tonight. Find them in the southeastern sky following sunset. For the western U.S., the Moon will begin to occult, or cover, Saturn the following morning before sunrise.
- September 17 – Full moon – Harvest moon – Supermoon – Partial lunar eclipse. The eclipse is in the evening hours for U.S. observers (while the Moon is rising for the West Coast). The Moon looks ever so slightly bigger and brighter that the average full moon, though in practice it's tough to tell the difference. The September full moon is often called the harvest moon, due to its association with harvest time in the Northern Hemisphere.
- September 22 – The Moon passes through the Pleiades star cluster tonight for U.S. observers.
- September 23 – Jupiter and the Moon glide across the sky together this evening. They rise late tonight and climb high into the southeast as dawn approaches.
- September 25 – The crescent moon appears near Mars this morning. See them with Jupiter and the bright stars of the winter constellations in the predawn sky.
The phases of the Moon for September 2024.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Detailed Guides
An archive of retired NASA executive Gordon Johnston's monthly skywatching column.
The Next Full Moon is the Flower, Corn, or Corn Planting Moon
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The Next Full Moon is the Flower, Corn, or Corn Planting Moon
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The next full Moon will be on Friday afternoon, May 5, 2023. The Moon will appear full from early Thursday morning through early Sunday morning.
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