Venus rotates in retrograde direction, acclaiming one Venusian day to 116.75 earth-days.Surprisingly 224.7 Venus-days amount to earth’s one solar year.
The red planet Mars can be picked up late in the night in the eastern sky.
One of the most gorgeous open star clusters in the night sky adorns constellation Cancer.
Planet Uranus can be discerned in the eastern sky around midnight.
Planet Neptune and ringed planet Saturn could be recognised in the eastern sky after evening twilight.
The night skies of this autumn month would enable avid sky-watchers to immerse themselves into the enigmas and splendors surrounding the planets, stars, constellations and countless cosmic entities beheld peculiarly peppered all over the cosmos. Planet Mercury is lost in solar brilliance as it marches through commanding constellations Leo (lion) and Virgo during day-time. Trying to glimpse low above western horizon is not easy and risky. Peering at objects in the Sun's vicinity though optical gadgets is dangerous and should be avoided. Otherwise permanent damage to eye-sight could ensue.
A bedazzling planet with thick carbon dioxide atmosphere and sulfuric acid clouds Venus is visible in south-western sky tersely in constellation Virgo (maiden) as dusk fades to tenebrous gloaming after sundown.
It is slowly dipping towards the horizon. Venus is the second planet from the Sun and is often crowned as earth’s sibling due to its size and mass (83 percent that of earth) with diameter of merely 12103.6 kilometers. Venus is extremely hot enough to melt lead. It is sizzling with 465 degrees Celsius. Fierce winds are howling at a hostile 360 kilometers per hour. Planets Mercury and Venus are bereft of moons. Venus rotates in retrograde direction, acclaiming one Venusian day to 116.75 earth-days.Surprisingly 224.7 Venus-days amount to earth’s one solar year.
The red planet Mars can be picked up late in the night in the eastern sky. It would ascend high till morning twilight and then it is unseen in solar glare. It is strolling through the southern section of the congenial constellation Gemini (twins). Gemini is associated with Greek mythological twins Castor (Kasturi) and Pollux (Punarbasu). Castor consists of three binary pairs with individual components designated as Castor A, B and C, thus converting it to a complex six stars-system. The strange sextuple system is approximately 49 light-years. Pollux is the most coruscating orange colossal star residing rigidly 34 light-years away. Deimos (dread) and Phobos (fear) are two Mars’ magnificent natural relatively minute moons.
The mighty planet Jupiter can be scrutinized succinctly in the eastern sky before sunrise. It is jovially jolting through cutely conspicuous constellation Cancer (crab). One of the most gorgeous open star clusters in the night sky adorns constellation Cancer.
It is bewitchingly 580 light-years away and contains over one thousand stars. It expounds as a fainthazy patch in the sky. Sky-gazers can relish the stunning spread of scintillating stars. Dubbed as Beehive cluster (Praesepe or M44) its scattered appearance resembles bewildering bees buzzing bizarrely around heavenly hive. Planet Uranus can be discerned in the eastern sky around midnight. It would be climbing in the southern sky till wee hours of the night.
It would be evanescent by dawn in western sky as day breaks. Uranus can be noticed gleefully gleaming in the charmingly outstretching constellation Taurus (bull). It has an exquisite atmosphere with banded cloud structure and is encircled by dim rings. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1781. Uranus is gaseous cyan-colored ice giant, primarily composed of water, ammonia and methane. It possesses a marked axial tilt of 82.23 degrees, causing supreme seasons with 42 years of continuous sunlight and murkiness for its poles. The planet has 29 known moons, including five major ones named after Shakespearean characters. The exploration of Uranus has been through telescopes and lone probe by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft in January 1986.
Numerous dedicated exploratory missions to Uranus have been proposed, but as of August 2026 none have been approved. Resplendent Aldebaran (Rohini) is shining serenely below Uranus. It is elegantly 65 light-years away. It seemingly follows an open group of beautiful blue stars cluster designated Pleiades (seven sisters or Kritika). Hence Aldebaran translates roughly to followers in Arabic. It is amazingly 44 times larger than the Sun. If Aldebaran replaced our Sun at the center of the Solar System, its surface would extend exceptionally halfway to Mercury’s track. Captivating supernova remnant Crab nebula (Messier object-1) enchantsTaurus. It is a whopping 6500 light-years away.
Planet Neptune and ringed planet Saturn could be recognised in the eastern sky after evening twilight. They would be ascending the southern sky and reach highest by midnight. They would descend towards western horizon and are cloaked in morning-light. Neptune is spotted below the Circlet-asterism in the confounding constellation Pisces (fishes). Planet Saturn is shimmering on the western side of Neptune. It is wandering in the curiously queer constellation Cetus (sea monster). Mira is a pulsating baffling binary star system located lustrously in Cetus simply 300 light-years away.
The nomenclature Mira means wonderful in Latin. Neptune is composed primarily of gases and liquids with no well-defined solid topology. It has 16 known moons, with Triton being the largest and most geologically active. Neptune's atmosphere is rich in hydrogen, helium and methane, giving it its blue color. It is known for its violent storms and supersonic winds. Neptune nips nonchalantly around the Sun from an average gap of 30.1 astronomical units, completing one revolution every 164.8 years. One Astronomical Unit (AU) is the mean Sun–earth distance and is equivalent to approximately 150 million kilometers. In 1989, Voyager-2 flew past Neptune, offering their first inspiring images. Neptune will make its closest approach to earth at so-called opposition on 25 September. Due to its far-flung span, it will look like a tiny blue dot. Jupiter and Saturn currently proudly present mind-boggling 115 and 293 moons.
New moon befalls on 11 September (fathers’ day). Full moon on 25 September (Indra Jatra). It is popularly known as the corn or harvest full moon because the corn is harvested wholesale during this time of year. It occurs conterminous to the September equinox each year. Krishna Asthami is revered respectfully on 04 September. Teej is celebrated cheerfully on 14 September especially by the female community. Rishi Panchami is applauded on 15 September. Venerated Indra Jatra festival is rejoiced with reverence on 25 September. September equinox transpires thrillingly on 23 September. The sun will shine directly on the equator and there will be nearly equal amounts of day and night throughout the world on this dramatic day. It heralds harmoniously the first day of fall (autumnal equinox) in the Northern Hemisphere and fairly the first day of spring (vernal equinox) in the Southern Hemisphere. On equinox-day everywhere on earth has almost exactly 12 hours of day and night, as the Sun's annual journey through the constellations of the zodiac carries it across the celestial equator. The word equinox is derived from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night). Equinoxes spring up because the axis of the earth's spin is sloped at an angle of sparse 23.5 degrees to the plane of its orbit around the Sun. The line of observation of the Sun shifts along the twelve zodiac constellations.
The earth's North Pole is slanted towards the Sun (in June) and sometimes it is inclined away from it (in December) consequently concocting earth's seasons. At intermediate points between solstices, the Sun stands over earth's equator on around 21 March and 23 September. In March, the Sun is travelling northwards across the equator and in September it is tumbling southwards. Earth whirls around the Sun once beguilingly in 365.242 days. The time period, over which the cycle of solstices and equinoxes and the earth's seasons, repeat from one year to the next. NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope that will revolutionise astronomy by building on the science findings and technological leaps of iconic
Hubble and James Webb space telescopeshas been successfully launched from Kennedy Space Centre, Florida. Roman will provide a pretty panoramic view that is basically 200 times greater than Hubble's infrared vista, leading to the first wide-field maps of the universe at space-based resolution. Roman will combine the power of pictures and spectroscopy in synergy with other institutions to gain refreshed sagacity into the universe through focused surveys and general astro-physics observations.
Using sophisticated instruments, Roman will delve into and investigate the nature of billions of galaxies and catch the light of stellar explosions in quest to solve secrets of dark energy, which is allegedly triggering the universe's eerie expansion to speed up. Roman’s scans of the sky will uncover thousands of exo-planets beyond our Solar System, exclusive types of planets never studied before.
(Shah is an academician at NAST and patron of NASO.)
