Look for Saturn, Jupiter and a transparent view of the Milky Way in our North Country skies

Sep 16, 2025 —

NCPR ‘star’ Aileen O’Donoghue at St. Lawrence University in Canton. Photo: Todd Moe.

Did you catch the greens and pinks of the northern lights Sunday night time?

What a present!

This time of yr, now we have extra of an opportunity to see the aurora borealis due to the orientation of the Earth’s and the solar’s magnetic fields. That’s in response to Aileen O’Donoghue, astronomer with St. Lawrence University and the Adirondack Sky Center & Observatory in Tupper Lake.

“They’re really hard to predict, so keep an eye out!”

O’Donoghue advised Northern Light co-hosts Monica Sandreczki and Catherine Wheeler about her go-to tool for updates on the aurora and what else to search for within the morning and night skies this month. Listen to their dialog beneath!

Aileen O’DonoghueLook for Saturn, Jupiter and a transparent view of the Milky Way in our North Country skies

Amanda Oldacre took a protracted publicity to seize the aurora borealis over Canton on Sunday night time. Photo: Amanda Oldacre.

Night viewing:

• Mars is low within the WSW sky, about 10 levels above the horizon at 8:30pm.
• Mercury is popping up, with the perfect viewing in late October.
• Saturn rises simply after 7:00pm in Pisces and might be within the night sky all winter lengthy!
• The Milky Way arcs up from due South to North, with the middle working between Scorpius and Sagittarius.

Morning viewing:

• The waning crescent moon might be seen between Jupiter and Venus on September 17 and 18.
• Jupiter is 50 levels above the ESE horizon round 6:00am in Gemini.
• Venus is sinking because it strikes to go behind the Sun. It’s now seen 16 levels above the japanese horizon at 6:00am.

Voyager 1 was the second spacecraft to check Saturn up shut. Launched Sept. 5, 1977, Voyager 1’s closest strategy to Saturn was on Nov. 12, 1980, at a spread of about 78,000 miles. A number of days earlier, on Nov. 3, 1980, Voyager 1 took these photos of Saturn and two of its moons, Tethys and Dione. The spacecraft was 8 million miles away when it captured the pictures. Photo & caption: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Multiple celestial occasions on Sept. 21 & 22!

• The Autumnal Equinox, which means “equal night,” might be at 2:19pm EDT on Monday, Sept. 22. However, we’ll really expertise 12:09:09 of daylight as a result of Earth’s atmostphere bends the sunshine of the Sun, in order that after we have a look at the horizon, the Sun is definitely beneath it. We’ll expertise a fair cut up of day and night time later throughout Equilux on Sept. 25.
• The new moon.
• Saturn might be at opposition that day, which means that is when it’s closest to the Earth.

“There’s always beauty in the sky,” stated O’Donoghue.

A waxing crescent moon is photographed from the International Space Station throughout an orbital sundown because the station flies 268 miles (431 kilometers) above the Pacific Ocean, east of New Zealand.

We can see a sliver of the lit half of the Moon, whereas many of the close to facet of the Moon is dealing with away from the Sun and is in darkness. For these within the Northern Hemisphere, it could seem like it is a waning crescent, however observe, this picture is taken above the Southern Hemisphere.

Above the floor of the Earth, an excellent sequence of colours roughly denotes a number of layers of the environment. Deep oranges and yellows seem within the troposphere, which incorporates over 80 p.c of the mass of the environment and nearly all the water vapor, clouds, and precipitation. The pink to white area above the clouds seems to be the decrease stratosphere; this atmospheric layer typically has few or no clouds. Above the stratosphere, blue layers possible mark the transition between the center and higher environment because it regularly fades into the blackness of outer area. Photo & caption: NASA.