The Moon reaches New Moon at approximately 03:27 UTC on September 11.
Because this occurs close to midnight in North America, the calendar date varies by time zone.
For example:
🇺🇸 New York: approximately 11:27 PM EDT on September 10
🇺🇸 Chicago: approximately 10:27 PM CDT on September 10
🇺🇸 Denver: approximately 9:27 PM MDT on September 10
🇺🇸 Los Angeles: approximately 8:27 PM PDT on September 10
🇮🇸 Iceland: approximately 3:27 AM on September 11
🇬🇧 United Kingdom: approximately 4:27 AM BST on September 11
This is why you will sometimes see astronomy calendars listing a Moon phase on different dates.
The astronomical event happens at one instant worldwide.
Our clocks are the ones arguing about what date it is.
At New Moon, the Moon lies approximately in the same direction as the Sun from Earth, meaning the illuminated half faces mostly away from us.
There is no eclipse this time because the alignment is not precise enough for the Moon to pass directly across the Sun.
Instead, we get something extremely useful:
A properly dark night.
🌌 NEW MOON WEEKEND = DEEP-SKY WEEKEND
If the weather cooperates, September 10–12 should be circled on your calendar.
These are among the best nights of the month for dark-sky observing.
No bright Moon.
Longer September nights.
Autumn constellations climbing higher.
Summer objects still hanging around.
This is the lovely overlap period when we can borrow some of the best things from two seasons at once.
🌌 ANDROMEDA IS BECOMING A STAR OF THE SHOW
Andromeda Galaxy – M31
If you have never seen another galaxy with your own eyes, September is an excellent time to change that.
The Andromeda Galaxy is now climbing beautifully into the evening sky across the Northern Hemisphere.
From a dark location, you can see it without a telescope.
It does not look like the enormous colourful spiral you see in astrophotographs.
Instead, look for a faint elongated patch of light.
And then remind yourself what that faint patch actually is.
A galaxy containing hundreds of billions of stars.
Approximately 2.5 million light-years away.
The photons entering your eyes began travelling toward Earth roughly two and a half million years ago.
They crossed intergalactic space for all that time and their journey ended because you happened to stand in a field looking upward on a September night.
That is considerably more impressive than “fuzzy patch.”
Binoculars make Andromeda much easier to see and reveal its bright central region beautifully.
🌌 THE DOUBLE CLUSTER
The Double Cluster in Perseus is another target I would put near the top of the list this week.
This is actually a pair of open star clusters sitting close together in the sky.
Through binoculars, the view is spectacular.
Hundreds of stars spill across the field, and unlike many faint deep-sky targets, you do not need an enormous telescope or years of observing experience to appreciate it.
This is one of my favourite objects to show someone who thinks astronomy through binoculars sounds boring.
They usually stop thinking that very quickly.
🌌 THE MILKY WAY
The summer Milky Way is still very much with us.
From dark Northern Hemisphere locations, look through:
⭐ Cygnus
⭐ Aquila
⭐ Sagittarius, especially from lower northern latitudes
⭐ Cassiopeia
The Milky Way runs through enormous stretches of the sky, and New Moon weekend is one of the best opportunities this month to photograph it.
If you live under heavy city light pollution, however, do not assume something is wrong with your eyes because you cannot see it.
The Milky Way is extraordinarily sensitive to artificial light.
Sometimes driving twenty or thirty minutes away from a city makes a ridiculous difference.
🔭 TELESCOPIC TARGETS
With the Moon absent, this is the week to chase objects that become frustrating under bright lunar skies.
M57 – The Ring Nebula
Located in Lyra, M57 is a planetary nebula created by a dying star shedding its outer layers into space.
Through a small telescope it appears as a tiny grey ring.
Through larger instruments under dark skies, its structure becomes increasingly obvious.
M27 – The Dumbbell Nebula
M27 is larger and brighter than the Ring Nebula and is one of the easiest planetary nebulae for amateur observers.
Binoculars can detect it under good skies.
A telescope reveals considerably more.
M13 – Hercules Globular Cluster
M13 remains beautifully placed during the evening.
Even a modest telescope begins resolving the fuzzy ball into individual stars around its edges.
Larger instruments reveal an extraordinary swarm of ancient stars packed together in a gravitationally bound cluster.
☄️ WAIT — THERE’S ANOTHER METEOR SHOWER
This is exactly why I check the smaller meteor calendars rather than only listing whatever shower happens to be trending on Google.
