Sunday marks the beginning of astronomical autumn

Sun will reach the point roon an autumn night on Sunday. The length of day and night wyrown, but as time goes by, the day will last longer and longer krocej. More sunlight will reach the posouthern hemisphere. It will be like this until the winter solstice, or December 21.

Astronomical seasons are linked to moments of goThe sun’s zenith over the roin the tropics or tropics. In the case of astronomical autumn, the Sun goIt rises in the zenith over the rownik. With the actual zroHowever, the reconciliation of day and night will occur somewhat poThe unknowns will be discovered later than the Sun’s passage through the pointoon the autumn night (the so-called. Scales point, which is one of the twooch pointoIn the intersection of the ecliptic with the roin the blue). It will be on September 25 and the night of September 25/26.

What in the night sky in autumn?

At the beginning of autumn, the evening sky will still be dominated by summer constellations. In particularoThe lute, the swan and the eagle. Their brightest stars, Vega, Deneb and Altair, respectively, form the tops of the so-called “southern hemisphere. TroSummer Jangle. However, it is also easy to see the Autumn Square. It is formed by three stars of the constellation Pegasus (Markab, Scheat and Algenib) and one of the brighter stars of the constellation Andromeda.

In the latter constellation is visible the galaxy M31, also known as the Great Nebula in Andromeda, and now commonly known as the Andromeda Galaxy. In the sky we see it as a small mist – The farthest object in space visible to the naked eye. However, you need a really dark sky to spot M31 with the naked eye, so it is generally easier to find it in the sky with binoculars. Planetarium-type computer programs can be helpful in this task, ktore show the current appearance of the sky (e.g. free Stellarium), mobile apps of this type or a rotating sky map.

In the second half of autumn, a constellation begins to be clearly visible in the evening skyor Orion. This is one of the easier rozroof the annual constellations in the sky. It consists of bright stars arranged in such a way toob that they form a schematic silhouette of a man, in the middle of whichoThe characteristic three bright stars can be seen aligned closely together – so-called. Orion’s belt. Looking slightly to the right and in gohand from Orion can be seen a group of stars close together. This is an open cluster of stars called the Pleiades. It is sometimes confused with the Little Cart, ktory, however, is located in a different part of the sky and occupies a much larger area than the Pleiades.

Planets

Of the bright planets in the autumn evening sky it will be possible to see Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The fastest sunset is Jupiter, poThen Saturn, and the longest visible is Mars. In October and November it will be possible to prob to spot even Mercury, although this is not an easy task. Venus, on the other hand, will be visible as the Morning Star in the latter part of autumn.

During the autumn months, one can proIt is composed of bright stars arranged in such a way that you can also see the farthest planets – Uranus and Neptune, visible virtually all night. However, in their case you will need a telescope for observation.

On October 15 there will be a conjunction of the Moon with Saturn, and three days poThe swarm with Mars. Silver Globe’s conjunction with Mars repeatsoers on November 16. Conjunctions of the Moon with bright planets are quite spectacular configurations in the sky, then both objects are visible in the sky close to each other. The same is true when the Moon is close to ktoany of the bright stars. Such a situation will occur on October 27, when the Moon will be close to the bright star Aldebaran. Even better conditions to see this conjunction will be on November 23.

Meteor swarmsow

With the swarmoin the meteoroin the first half of autumn, the most active will be the Orionids, visible from October 2 to November 7, and having a maximum on October 21. It is then possible to spot up to 20 meteorsow per hour, although this will be hindered by the proximity of the full Moon. Orionids are associated with Halley’s comet.

By far the more active swarm are the Geminids, visible from December 4 to 17, with a maximum on December 14. In their case, the maximum number of phenomena can reach up to 120 per hour. Geminids are associated with the asteroid 3200 Phaeton, whichora possibly an extinct comet.