September promises a spectacular lineup of celestial events. The harvest moon will illuminate the night sky with its golden glow, a lunar eclipse will briefly darken the moon as it passes through Earth's shadow, and Saturn will reach opposition, shining brightly as it aligns directly opposite the Sun, offering an ideal view of its iconic rings.

Professor Chris Palma from Penn State's Eberly College of Science highlights several significant astronomy events occurring in September. The full moon this month is traditionally known as the corn moon, a name rooted in Native American cultures and linked to the corn harvest season. A lunar eclipse will also take place, though it will not be visible in North America, with visibility limited to Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Saturn reaches opposition this month, meaning it will be directly opposite the sun from Earth's perspective, making it appear brighter and larger in the night sky. Palma encourages enthusiasts to observe Saturn with a telescope or binoculars for an optimal view. He also clarifies the distinction between meteorological fall, which begins on a fixed calendar date, and astronomical fall, which is determined by the sun's position relative to the celestial equator.

September astronomy events

Professor Chris Palma, astronomy and astrophysics professor at Penn State's Eberly College of Science. And of course, you know what I'm going to say, Chris. We are? Penn State. There you go. All right, Chris, we talked about the moon a little bit. Two moon questions. So September's full moon, it's called the chord moon. What's the origin of this harvest reference? And then there's also a lunar eclipse this month. When will that be visible? Yeah. So this is the full moon that's coming up. And I'll be honest, I call it a full moon. But these wonderful names come often from all the different cultures that have studied the moon. And it is corn harvest time. You can see that just by driving around central PA. And so a lot of Native American cultures, in particular, would call the September full moon something related to the corn harvest moon. And that's where that comes from. So the only time you can get a lunar eclipse is at full moon. So we're scheduled for one in just a few days when the moon is full. But unfortunately, the timing is such that it's not going to be visible in North America. So it's just going to be our friends in Europe, Asia, Africa that will see it. And this one, we're left out. All right, later this month, and I say this all the time, hey, Saturn is in opposition. Oh, yeah, that was a huge thing. It sounds so cool, like I know what I'm talking about. I have no idea what that means. Can you explain it? Yeah, right, I don't know if you feel differently when Saturn is in opposition compared to when Mercury is in retrograde. But that's where these sayings come from. Like, how do the planets appear on the sky? But in my case, I really like Saturn being in opposition. What that means is if you picture the sun, the Earth, and Saturn, Saturn is exactly opposite in the sky from the sun, which means our easiest time to see the sun is noon. Now the best time to see the sun will, sorry, Saturn will be opposite that at midnight. And so that means it'll be bigger, brighter, easier to spot, easier to see. And I tell everybody, if you have a small telescope, you have binoculars, please try to look at Saturn this month. It's going to look better than if you've never seen it. It'll look the best. But if you've seen it before, it really should look better at opposition. And you have to put your telescope together first, right, to see it? It's still in the box. I'm not good following instructions. But I've got to, hey, listen, now, when my wife's here, I've got to put my telescope together. And Tyler's going to go, why? Well, because Saturn is in opposition. You've got to see Saturn. Do you know what that means? And I sound smart. Heller. All right, fall starts twice in September, right? We say once the calendar and once in the sky. What's the difference between meteorological fall and astronomical fall? Yeah, that's a great question. I'm an astronomer. I can't get away from thinking like an astronomer. We pay attention to the seasons based on the sun. And so you all probably are starting to notice sunsets getting earlier. About 730 now is around when we have sunset. And so we're headed towards those winter really early sunsets. So to us, astronomical fall begins at the exact moment when we're at roughly half a day is daytime, half a day is nighttime. So roughly 12 hours of daytime, roughly 12 hours of nighttime. It's when the sun technically is going below the celestial equator. So that's astronomical fall. Meteorological, you all, make it easy. Let's just call fall September 1. And so for us, the date varies based on the position of the sun. But meteorological fall is always September 1 at exactly the same moment. And it makes it easier to study trends. What is the climate like in fall? What is the weather typically like in fall? So that's the reason we have this difference. We pay very careful attention to where the sun is. And Chris, I'm going to put you on the spot here. Do it. All right, ready? If you had to pick one celestial event that I should get my telescope out on, what would it be? I'm going to be honest, Saturn in opposition. You're probably going to think I'm making that up. But every single person I have ever shown Saturn through a telescope thinks it's a magical thing. They're blown away at how beautiful it looks. You will be able to see the rings, even if you have a very small telescope. You'll be able to see its bright moon Titan. And people really, I've had people start to cry at the telescope over how beautiful Saturn looks. And so honestly, Saturn at opposition is probably your best bet. And a close second would be really studying the moon, looking very closely at the moon and trying to identify individual craters, individual features on the surface. But in that head to head, Saturn wins. Well, I got to get my telescope. You really have no excuse. You know what I could do? I can make a sign. Saturn in opposition, come to the Raynaud house. Yeah, you could charge. Charges, OK. We got to go. For Professor Chris Paul of astronomy and astrophysics professor at Penn State's Everly College of Science, thank you so much for joining us on AccuOther Early. We can feel your passion about astronomy. And it was amazing. It was.

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