5 planets will light up the September sky — here's how to see them

Venus, which has been such a prominent object in the western evening twilight sky since the start of spring, is now entering its final full month of visibility.

With each passing day, it drops a bit lower in the southwest sky and sets a bit earlier and closer to the vicinity of the sun.

By month’s end, making a Venus sighting will be rather difficult as it will be following the sun to below the horizon by only about 30 minutes.

During the last week of September, Mercury pops up above the western horizon at dusk, primarily for those living in the southern half of the U.S., though you might need Venus to help direct you to this rocky little world.

Saturn is evident for much of the night, appearing low in the eastern sky as the sky darkens and reaching its highest point in the southern sky soon after midnight.

Mars is a planet that is visible during the predawn hours.

While it was quite dim just a few months ago, it has been slowly approaching Earth and consequently has been slowly increasing in brightness.

Now, as we move into the final quarter of this year, its brightening will become much more noticeable.

Finally, there is Jupiter, becoming increasingly obvious as a brilliant light, low in the eastern sky a few hours before sunrise.

In our schedule, remember that when measuring the angular separation between two celestial objects, your clenched fist held at arm's length measures roughly 10 degrees.

Here, we present a schedule below which provides some of the best planet viewing times as well as directing you as to where to look to see them The sun The sun crosses the celestial equator, heading south at 8:05 p.m.

EDT on Sept.

22 (0005 GMT on Sept.

23).