Now is a good time to use a telescope to view Jupiter and Uranus and to say goodbye to summer.
Jupiter rises in the early evening and is easily visible above the eastern horizon by 8:30 p.m. It's always easy to see on a clear night, even with the moon up, because it's the fourth-brightest object in the sky, exceeded only by the sun, the moon and Venus.
If you have access to a small telescope, be sure to look at Jupiter. Its four bright moons and its cloud bands are easily visible.
Moreover, on Saturday night, Uranus is just slightly higher (less than one degree) above the horizon than Jupiter.
Uranus is usually too faint to be seen with the unaided eye, though at times it gets bright enough to be visible to the naked eye in a very dark sky.
Uranus is a giant planet with a diameter of about 31,764 miles.
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It has a beautiful blue-green color that should be evident in binoculars.
A small telescope also will show the disc of Uranus, though Uranus is too far away to show any detail except in images obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Wednesday will be the day of the autumnal equinox, when we move from summer into autumn.
At that time, the sun appears to cross the celestial equator from the northern part of the sky to the southern part of the sky. "Equinox" means "equal night" - the hours of day and night are equal.
There is actually somewhat more daylight than night, because the atmosphere acts as a giant lens and bends the sun's light up above the horizon a few minutes before sunrise and a few minutes after sunset. Around the times of the vernal and the autumnal equinox, the sun rises due east and sets due west.
First-quarter moon was Wednesday night, and full moon will be a week from today.
Contact Tim Hunter at skyspy@azstarnet.com