Monday, September 8, 2025
Today, the Moon, Saturn, and Neptune will make a close approach, passing within 4⁰ of each other. The Moon and Saturn are easily visible to the unaided eye, but a telescope is necessary to view Neptune.
Tuesday, September 9, 2025
On this date in 1980, NASA launched the GOES-4 weather satellite via a Delta rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. GOES-4 was the first geostationary satellite to provide a continuous look at temperature and moisture conditions in the vertical layers of Earth’s atmosphere.
Visit here to see current images from the GOES Satellite Network.
Wednesday, September 10, 2025
Today, the moon is at perigee. Perigee occurs when the Moon is at the closet point in its orbit to the Earth. The elliptical orbit of the Moon causes it to vary in distance by about 14% between perigee to its farthest point from the Earth, apogee. When perigee occurs near full moon, this can be commonly referred to as a “super moon.”
Thursday, September 11, 2025
On this date in 1985, NASA’s International Cometary Explorer (ICE) made its programmed flyby of Comet Giacobini-Zinner. ICE was the first spacecraft to directly investigate a comet, and after an encounter with Halley’s Comet, became the first to investigate two comets.
Friday, September 12, 2025
On this date in 1992, astronaut Mae C. Jemison became the first African American woman in space. Jemison flew aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour on mission STS-47 from September 12 through September 20. She conducted a variety of experiments during the eight-day flight including research on bone loss in zero gravity.
Saturday, September 13, 2025
On this date in 1912, Horace Welcome Babcock was born. Babcock was an American astronomer who invented a number of astronomical instruments, including a magnetograph which took measurements of the Sun’s magnetic field. This technique was also used to measure the magnetic fields of other stars and discovered that some stars are magnetically variable.
Sunday, September 14, 2025
Today, the moon will reach third quarter phase. The moon will rise at 10:55 PM CDT in St. Louis and will culminate at 6:50 AM CDT on the morning of September 15.
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