{"id":631956,"date":"2026-09-30T09:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T09:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/631956\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T09:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T09:32:09","slug":"the-sky-today-on-wednesday-september-30-asteroid-nausikaa-at-opposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/631956\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sky Today on\u00a0Wednesday, September 30: Asteroid Nausikaa at opposition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\tBack to Article List\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tThe 192nd asteroid discovered in the main belt is now at its best, located within a diamond shape of brighter field stars. \t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1438\" height=\"881\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Nausikaa-09302026.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"Star chart of the constellation Pisces labeled at upper left, dated September 30, 10 P.M. EDT, showing the asteroid Nausikaa marked as a small red dot near center among scattered white and pale orange field stars. A compass arrow indicates north and east at upper left, and a 2 degree scale bar sits at lower right.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tLook for asteroid Nausikaa at opposition on September 30, within a diamond of slightly brighter field stars in the constellation Pisces. Credit: Alison Klesman (via TheSkyX)\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.astronomy.com\/the-sky-this-week\/the-sky-this-week-from-september-25-to-october-2-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sky This Week<\/a>\u00a0column.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">September 29: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.astronomy.com\/observing\/the-sky-today-tuesday-september-29-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ganymede transits Jupiter<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-paragraph\">Asteroid 192 Nausikaa reaches opposition at 6 P.M. EDT in the constellation Pisces, just north of Saturn and Neptune\u2019s position on the sky.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">About 62 miles (100 kilometers) wide, Nausikaa is a rough-edged, slightly oblong rocky body in the inner region of the main belt. It now shines at magnitude 8.5, within reach of binoculars or any telescope. The nearest bright star is 3rd-magnitude Algenib (Gamma [\u03b3] Pegasi), which is just over 6.5\u00b0 north of the asteroid. Tonight, Nausikaa sits within a diamond formed by four background stars of varying brightness, from about 5th to 8th magnitude. It is moving westward, shifting very slightly with respect to this pattern over time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because it is at opposition, Nausikaa is visible all night, standing highest (in the south) around midnight. The best time to observe it will be earlier in the evening before or shortly after moonrise, although even after rising, the gibbous Moon shouldn\u2019t diminish the view too significantly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> Sunrise: 6:55 A.M.<br \/>Sunset: 6:44 P.M.<br \/>Moonrise: 8:52 P.M.<br \/>Moonset: 11:39 A.M.<br \/>Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (77%) <br \/>*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40\u00b0 N 90\u00b0 W. The Moon\u2019s illumination is given at 10 P.M. local time from the same location.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alison Klesman\u00a0is senior editor of\u00a0Astronomy\u00a0magazine. She holds a Ph.D. in astronomy and has studied a variety of topics, from minor planets to supermassive black holes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back to Article List The 192nd asteroid discovered in the main belt is now at its best, located&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[85,46,2928,141,43844],"class_list":["post-631956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-observing","tag-science","tag-sky-tonight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}