- Rare meteor shower peaks: A newly discovered “Chi Cygnid” meteor shower may spark slow-moving shooting stars around September 15 earthsky.org – a once-in-five-years treat for skywatchers.
- Auroras reach far south: An unexpected strong solar storm is lighting up auroras as far south as Colorado this weekend spaceweather.com, painting the night sky with shimmering colors.
- Planets on display:Saturn shines at its brightest and Jupiter pairs with the Moon in the pre-dawn hours of Sept. 16 ndtv.com, while dazzling Venus rises before sunrise.
- No eclipse, but it’s coming: No eclipse falls exactly on Sept. 15–16, but stargazers just witnessed a Blood Moon lunar eclipse on Sept. 7 and are gearing up for a partial solar eclipse on Sept. 21 ndtv.com en.wikipedia.org.
- Eyes to the sky: A new comet is emerging in southern skies spaceweather.com, and even the ISS and satellite “trains” add to the show for those who know when to look.
Meteor Showers: Chi Cygnids Take Flight
Skywatchers are buzzing about the Chi Cygnid meteor shower, a rare meteor display that appears to flare up about every five years. First noticed during a surprise outburst in 2015, the Chi Cygnids have shown heightened activity in 2010, 2015, 2020, and now 2025 earthsky.org. Astronomers report that this modest shower has been “showing increased activity this week” and could peak around the nights of September 13 to 15, 2025 earthsky.org. The most probable window for any burst of meteors is September 14–16 amsmeteors.org, so the evenings of the 15th and 16th are prime time to watch.
Unlike famous showers such as August’s Perseids, the Chi Cygnids are not expected to produce huge numbers of meteors. But what they lack in quantity, they make up in uniqueness. Chi Cygnid meteors are unusually slow – zipping through Earth’s atmosphere at only ~15 km/s, compared to ~60 km/s for Perseids earthsky.org. Their leisurely pace means any meteors you do catch will linger longer across the sky, making them easier to spot and enjoy. Even a few meteors are a thrill: “With the Chi Cygnids, it’s not about seeing a huge number of meteors… Those seeking Chi Cygnids are inspired by the thrill of the hunt!” notes EarthSky, emphasizing that spotting just one or two of these slow fireballs can earn you bragging rights earthsky.org.
How to watch: The Chi Cygnid radiant (the point they appear to originate from) lies in the constellation Cygnus (the Swan), which is nearly overhead in the early evenings for mid-northern latitudes. Uniquely, this shower is best viewed in the early evening just after nightfall, so you won’t have to stay up until dawn for a chance to see shooting stars discovermagazine.com earthsky.org. Find a dark location away from city lights, get comfortable (perhaps with a blanket or reclining chair), and gaze toward Cygnus high in the sky. Even if only a handful of meteors streak by, they will likely be slow, bright, and memorable. And remember, meteor showers are inherently unpredictable – there’s no guarantee of an outburst, but experts say there’s a good chance of seeing some activity during this mid-September window earthsky.org. Keep your eyes peeled; the hunt is part of the fun!
Planetary Highlights: Saturn Shines, Moon Meets Jupiter
This weekend the planets are putting on a show from dusk till dawn. In the evening sky, Saturn is stealing the spotlight. The ringed planet is nearing its opposition (exact on Sept. 21) when Earth comes directly between Saturn and the Sun, and it’s consequently “at its closest and brightest all year” science.nasa.gov. Throughout September, yellowish Saturn rises around sunset in the east and stays visible all night planetary.org. Even with the naked eye it gleams like a golden star in Pisces, but with a small telescope you might glimpse Saturn’s famous rings (which get an extra brightness boost around opposition due to the Seeliger effect) universemagazine.com. Now is the best time of year to enjoy Saturn’s celestial performance.
Not to be outdone, Jupiter is also impressive and dominates the late-night and pre-dawn sky. In the early hours of Monday, Sept. 16, look toward the eastern sky before sunrise: you’ll see the waning crescent Moon cozying up to Jupiter, coming within about 4.5° – a close Moon-Jupiter conjunction ndtv.com. The pair rises after midnight and by dawn on Sept. 16 will be shining high, side by side, among the stars of Gemini. Observers with telescopes or even steady binoculars might also spot Jupiter’s Galilean moons near the planet ndtv.com, while the Moon’s slender crescent may even display earthshine (the dim glow of Earth’s light on the Moon’s dark side). This lovely pairing of the brightest planet and our Moon will be easily visible to the naked eye – a great photo opportunity in the pre-dawn darkness.
Meanwhile, the morning planet Venus continues to dazzle as the “super-bright” Morning Star each day planetary.org. Venus rises in the east before sunrise, outshining everything except the Moon. If you’re up early on the 15th or 16th, you can’t miss Venus blazing low on the horizon. Higher above Venus you’ll find Jupiter, and together these two brightest planets form a striking line in the pre-dawn sky planetary.org. (Mars, by contrast, is not part of the show – the Red Planet has slipped into the Sun’s glare and is too faint to see this month farmersalmanac.com.)
Mark your calendar: Just a few days after this weekend, a spectacular event occurs on Sept. 19 – Venus will pass directly behind the crescent Moon in a rare occultation, briefly vanishing from sight for some locations ndtv.com. This will happen in daylight for parts of Europe/Africa, but in the predawn hours of the 19th the close pairing of Venus and the ultra-thin Moon will be visible in dark skies for many regions ndtv.com. Occultations of Venus are relatively uncommon, so if skies are clear on the 19th, be sure to look east before dawn to catch Venus playing hide-and-seek with the Moon! (Even where the occultation isn’t directly visible, Venus will appear extremely close to the Moon on the sky’s dome – a beautiful sight.) After that, on Sept. 21, Saturn reaches opposition and a New Moon arrives universemagazine.com – meaning dark, moonless nights perfect for stargazing and appreciating Saturn’s peak brilliance ndtv.com.
Auroras Alert: Solar Storm Paints the Sky Green
Space weather news has skywatchers excited this weekend: a geomagnetic storm hit Earth on Sept. 14, delivering a dazzling auroral display that is persisting into the 15th–16th. A high-speed stream of solar wind from a large coronal hole (a dark “butterfly-shaped” gap in the Sun’s atmosphere) slammed into Earth’s magnetic field on Sept. 14 space.com. Forecasters had expected a minor to moderate disturbance (NOAA predicted only G1–G2 level activity) space.com, but Mother Nature over-delivered. The impact sparked an “unexpectedly strong G3-class geomagnetic storm” on the night of Sept. 14–15 spaceweather.com – a strong storm on the 5-level NOAA scale. As a result, Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) lit up skies much farther south than usual. Observers reported auroras visible deep into the United States, “as far south as Colorado”, and across northern Europe spaceweather.com, delighting skywatchers who don’t often get to see the green and purple glow of the aurora at their latitudes.
Although the peak of the storm is subsiding, auroral activity is not over yet. Space weather experts warn that minor (G1) to moderate (G2) geomagnetic storms could recur throughout Sept. 15 as Earth continues to be buffeted by fast solar wind spaceweather.com. That means folks in the northern tier of the US, Canada, Northern Europe, and similar high latitudes should remain on aurora alert both nights of Sept. 15–16. Even at lower latitudes, keep an eye on the northern horizon for any faint pillars of red or green light after dark, especially if you hear news of geomagnetic activity. Auroras tend to intensify around local midnight, but can appear anytime the disturbance is strong.
Skywatchers lucky enough to witness the aurora display have described it in awestruck terms. “Wow, I wasn’t expecting a show of this magnitude!” admitted Lauri Kangas, who photographed the auroras from Ontario, Canada, as curtains of green and pink danced overhead spaceweather.com. “Lots of movement and color were visible to the naked eye, and the corona overhead was writhing like a snake! It was absolutely gorgeous,” Kangas said of the vivid display spaceweather.com. Such reports underscore just how special this geomagnetic storm has been.
What supercharged the auroras? Scientists note an interesting seasonal factor: the Russell–McPherron effect around the equinox. In the weeks around the spring or autumn equinox, the Sun’s and Earth’s magnetic fields tend to line up just right, amplifying geomagnetic activity spaceweather.com. This likely helped the Sept. 14 solar wind stream trigger a much stronger storm than initially expected. The result: a weekend aurora spectacle for the record books. So if your skies are clear on Sept. 15 or 16, look north after dark – you just might catch the sky’s neon lights rippling on the horizon. And even if you’re too far south for auroras, know that Earth’s upper atmosphere is buzzing with energy and color that our high-latitude friends are enjoying.
Comet News: Surprise Visitor in Southern Skies
Amid all the planned celestial events, the cosmos has thrown a surprise into the mix: a new comet! In early September, astronomers were excited to spot a previously unknown comet emerging from behind the Sun. It has been nicknamed Comet SWAN 25B, after the SWAN instrument that detected it. In just a few days this icy visitor “tripled in brightness”, and by mid-September it has brightened to around magnitude 6 – right on the threshold of naked-eye visibility spaceweather.com. That means under ideal dark-sky conditions, it might be just barely visible to the unaided eye as a dim fuzzy patch. More likely, binoculars or a small telescope will be needed to spot it – and currently only observers in the Southern Hemisphere have a good view of this comet spaceweather.com.
Comet SWAN 25B was first noticed on Sept. 11 by an amateur astronomer examining data from SOHO’s SWAN camera spaceweather.com. It appears to be rich in hydrogen gas, given how it showed up in the solar wind-monitoring images spaceweather.com. Photographers have already captured a substantial tail on this comet – one image from Namibia showed a tail so long it barely fit in a 4° field of view spaceweather.com! The comet is currently near the star Spica in the constellation Virgo spaceweather.com, creeping through the morning sky of the Southern Hemisphere. If you’re in Australia, New Zealand, South America, South Africa or other southern locales, you may want to try hunting for this newcomer before dawn.
Excitingly, early orbital calculations suggest Comet SWAN 25B will make a relatively close approach to Earth in mid-October (about 0.25 AU, or ~37 million km) spaceweather.com. As it draws nearer, there is the potential for it to brighten further – perhaps becoming a truly noticeable comet in October if we’re lucky. Comet experts caution that nothing is guaranteed with these dirty snowballs – some fizzle out, while others exceed expectations. But the phrase “the best may be yet to come” is being floated around spaceweather.com. We’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, it’s a delight to have an unexpected comet gracing our skies. It adds a dash of spontaneity to the month’s skywatching menu. Northern Hemisphere observers, sit tight: if the comet survives and continues to brighten, it may become accessible to you in a few weeks as it climbs higher in the sky. Stay tuned for comet updates!
Satellites and Space Station: Manmade Sights in the Sky
Nature isn’t the only source of sky spectacles – human-made satellites are contributing to the light show as well. The most prominent is the International Space Station (ISS), which orbits Earth 16 times a day and is often visible flying overhead. Spotting the ISS is easier than you might think: it appears as “a very bright star moving across the night sky”, usually for a few minutes just after sunset or before sunrise nasa.gov nasa.gov. It doesn’t blink or have flashing lights like an airplane, and it moves much faster – about 28,000 km/h (17,500 mph) – zipping from horizon to horizon. If you time it right, the ISS can outshine most stars, making for an impressive sight. Around Sept. 15–16, many locations worldwide have evening viewing opportunities. For example, observers in the mid-Northern latitudes might catch the ISS passing overhead in the early evenings (check a tracking app or NASA’s Spot the Station schedule for your specific area). When you see that bright dot gliding silently across the sky, give a wave – there are astronauts aboard! It’s a great family-friendly skywatching target that requires no telescope, just clear skies and timing.
Another modern phenomenon to watch for: satellite “trains” from SpaceX’s Starlink constellation. SpaceX has been launching frequent batches of Starlink internet satellites, including launches in mid-September 2025, and in the days right after each launch, the newly deployed satellites line up and can be seen as a “string of bright, evenly spaced lights” moving across the twilight sky space.com. These Starlink satellite trains have startled many unsuspecting observers (often being mistaken for UFOs at first) space.com. If you find yourself outside shortly after dusk and notice a sequence of lights marching in a neat row, you’re likely witnessing a Starlink pass. They are usually best seen about 1–3 days after a launch, when the satellites are still in low orbits and clustered together. This weekend, given recent Starlink launches, keep an eye out for such sightings. Timing is everything – the satellites are visible when illuminated by the Sun against a dark sky, typically an hour or two after sunset or before sunrise space.com. They’ll fade as they climb to higher orbits and spread out, but initially they create a truly bizarre and fascinating spectacle. (Websites and apps like FindStarlink can predict when the trains are visible at your location space.com.) While astronomers have concerns about satellite swarms interfering with observations, there’s no denying the wow factor for casual skywatchers seeing a Starlink train for the first time.
In summary, the nights of September 15–16, 2025, offer a feast of celestial delights. From the chance of catching an elusive slow meteor, to admiring planets and the Moon dancing together, to witnessing the aurora’s ethereal glow or a newly discovered comet, there’s something for everyone. As NASA likes to remind us, “exploration is in our nature,” and this weekend the cosmos is certainly inviting us to look up and explore. So grab a jacket, invite some friends or family outside, and enjoy the cosmic show unfolding above – it’s a reminder that we live under a dynamic and magical sky.
Sources: Skywatching reports and forecasts from NASA and astronomy experts science.nasa.gov ndtv.com; American Meteor Society and EarthSky meteor alerts amsmeteors.org earthsky.org; Spaceweather.com and NOAA space weather updates spaceweather.com spaceweather.com; NDTV and UniverseMagazine event listings ndtv.com universemagazine.com; Space.com and SpaceWeather reports on solar wind and auroras space.com spaceweather.com; Spaceweather.com comet discovery news spaceweather.com; NASA and Space.com guides to planets, ISS, and satellites planetary.org nasa.gov space.com.
