Australia may lose the meteor contest this week.
It absolutely does not lose the sky.
📸 ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY THIS WEEK
If you have been waiting for a good September Milky Way photography window, this is it.
Aim for:
September 9–12
The Moon is either extremely thin or completely absent.
Use a sturdy tripod.
Get away from artificial light.
Turn off image stabilisation if your lens manufacturer recommends doing so while tripod-mounted.
Use manual focus.
Focus carefully on a bright star.
And take several exposures rather than assuming the first one is perfect.
For Andromeda, a tracking mount opens up dramatically longer exposures, but even ordinary cameras can capture the galaxy under dark skies.
🔭 WHAT DO YOU NEED?
For the meteor showers:
Nothing except your eyes and patience.
For Andromeda:
Your eyes under dark skies, binoculars for a better view.
For the Double Cluster:
Binoculars are fantastic.
For Saturn:
A small telescope.
For Neptune:
A telescope and finder chart.
For the Milky Way:
Darkness.
That last piece of equipment is free.
Unfortunately, depending on where you live, it can also be the hardest one to find.
🗓 WEEK AT A GLANCE
| Date | Astronomical Event |
| September 7–10 | 🌘 Waning Crescent Moon and increasingly dark skies |
| September 9 | ☄️ September Epsilon Perseid meteor shower peaks |
| September 9–12 | 🌌 Excellent moonless deep-sky observing |
| September 11 | 🌑 New Moon – approximately 03:27 UTC |
| September 12 | ☄️ September Lyncid meteor shower peaks |
| September 12–13 | 🌒 Extremely young waxing crescent Moon |
| All week | 🪐 Saturn becomes increasingly prominent |
| All week | 🔵 Neptune approaches opposition |
| All week | 🌌 Andromeda and the Double Cluster become superb evening targets |
🌠 HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF THIS WEEK
If you want meteors, make the night of September 8 into September 9 your priority for the September Epsilon Perseids, but remember that this is a modest shower, so find genuinely dark skies and settle in rather than expecting a meteor every thirty seconds.
If you own binoculars, use them on the Andromeda Galaxy and Double Cluster, because both are beautifully placed and New Moon conditions give them the dark background they deserve.
If you own a telescope, this is the week to forget the Moon for a while and chase M13, M27, M57, Saturn and whatever other deep-sky targets have been sitting on your observing list.
And if you have no equipment at all, find somewhere dark on September 10, 11 or 12, put your phone away and spend half an hour simply looking.
Give your eyes enough time and the sky will change.
More stars appear.
Then more.
The Milky Way becomes visible.
