Pwo Navigator Jack Thatcher says that in September, after sunset, the Fishhook of Maui drags the Milky Way, te Ikaroa, down from the sky. It is a fantastic description of what we see in the evening night sky.
The centre of the Milky Way is climbing down from the sky. The bright star you see in the photo above is the red giant Antares, and to the very left, you can see the two pointer stars, one yellow and one blue. The yellow one is our closest neighbour, Alpha Centauri. To the right, the Milky Way Kiwi is also visible.
September is a great time to take a last look at the galactic centre, with all the beautiful objects it carries. And as a bonus, the supermassive black hole is right on top of the head of the Kiwi.
To the left, the Southern Cross region is very low in the sky. This means the Magellanic Clouds are high in the sky and in a perfect position to observe. We saw the Tarantula Nebula – a region where stars are born in another galaxy, and 47 Tucanae, a globular cluster of old stars.
We use red light throughout all our stargazing sessions to preserve the dark adaptation, which is why many photos have red lights.
Click here to access the individual photos – as a stargazer that night, you should have received a separate invitation to access them.
This is the sky’s map on the 17th of September, 2022.
