Photo taken on Aug. 24 showing the special astronomical phenomenon seen at the Forbidden City of the Ming Dynasty in Nanjing
The Astronomical Society of Tianjin has announced that six astronomical phenomena will be visible to the naked eye in September, including the Delta Aurigids meteor shower, an annular eclipse, the Neptune at opposition, the Mars Saturn Antares conjunction, the penumbral lunar eclipse and Mercury at greatest elongation west, according to a report by Xinhua.
Tomorrow (September 1), the Delta Aurigids meteor shower is likely to commence around 3 a.m. Zhao Zhiyan, director of the society, advanced that the meteor shower’s flow will be small in scale and that interested observers will have to be patient and expect to wait for some time until a shooting star may finally appear in the sky. On the same day, an annular eclipse will occur as well, although it will not be visible from Chinese territory. It will commence becoming visible from Mid-Atlantic lands through Gabon, the Republic of Congo, and other regions in Africa before it ends over the east Indian Ocean.
On Friday, Neptune, the farthest planet from the sun, will be well placed for observation. During the following 20 or more days if given a clear night sky, the public can use telescopes with a 100mm diameter lens to observe the planet.
Next week, on September 9, the Mars Saturn Antares conjunction will also be visible, marking the last time this year the star and the two planets can be seen shining around the moon.
On September 17, according to Zhao, almost everywhere across China a partial lunar eclipse may be seen, starting from 0:56 a.m. and ending at 4:56 a.m..
Finally, on September 29, planet Mercury will sit itself at the greatest elongation west. This is the third and last time this year that Mercury can be seen from that position. Staff Reporter
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