September

Skywatching

The Milky Way arches high overhead on September evenings, visible under dark skies.

The Great Square of Pegasus ascends the eastern sky, with some of the leading star patterns of fall trickling into view as the month progresses.

Venus and Jupiter, the brightest objects in the night sky other than the Moon, bracket the sky, with Venus in view in early evening and Jupiter at dawn.

Credit: CTIO / NOIRLab / DOE / NSF / AURA

Astronomers Catch Massive Star’s Death

A rare cosmic explosion has given astronomers an unprecedented view of a massive star in its final moments, revealing a previously missing link between ordinary supernovae and the most energetic explosions in the universe.

“Capturing the earliest stages of a supernova requires telescopes that can respond quickly," said Greg Zeimann, an astronomer at McDonald Observatory and co-author on a recent study about the supernova. "The Hobby-Eberly Telescope’s queue scheduling allowed the observations to be added rapidly after discovery, contributing an important piece to the international observing campaign.”

See Our Dynamic Sun at a Solar Viewing

The Sun goes through a roughly 11-year cycle of increasing and decreasing activity on its surface. We are currently at a peak, known as "solar maximum." Here on Earth, this can mean more auroras near our poles. On the Sun itself, this means more sunspots, loops of plasma extending into space, and dramatic flares.

You can see this solar spectacle live during one of our Solar Viewing programs. These are held at 1 p.m. each Tuesday through Saturday in the Visitors Center theater.

If clouds or inclement weather cover the Sun, we show archived images from our telescopes and recent images from space and/or ground-based telescopes.

Tickets include general admission.