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Unfortunately, we say goodbye in the summer this weekend with the autumnal equinox at 8:54 pm. Saturday. Even if the northern and southern hemispheres receive the same amount of sunlight, you do not have a better chance of balancing an egg to an end today. Another myth about the autumn equinox is that the hours of the day and the night become equal – the daylight hours continue to win. In Shamokin, the day of the autumn equinox, the days are more than 10 minutes longer than the nights. Night hours do not beat the hours of the day until Wednesday. All this is due to the phenomena of astronomical refraction which so much bend the sun's rays on the horizon that it appears that the sun is still a little above the horizon when it is below the horizon. We cheat at night at both ends of the day.
No matter how little we spend this week, we will be lit almost every 24 hours by daylight and by moonlight at night. It's because we have more or less a full moon all this week. The exact night of the full moon of the coming week is Tuesday night and as this week's full moon is so close to the autumn equinox date, it is the annual full moon.
The harvest moon has taken its name as it illuminates the night sky just at harvest time. Now, all the full moon will rise around sunset and will rise around sunrise, but astronomically, what makes the harvest so special is that it only goes up about 20 minutes later, at place 45 to 50 minutes later. much of the gap between the time the sun goes down and the moon rises. The details of what is happening are complicated, and to be honest with you, a bit boring. Let's just say that this is a case of celestial mechanics unique to work where the ecliptic, which is the plane of Earth's orbit around the sun, is very close to the horizon in the evening and stays there.
Before lighthouses were an option on Allis-Chalmers tractors, farmers could take advantage of the harvest moon with its pale light to extend their time on the field. This is not easy though. Eagle eyes, strong coffee and determination were also needed for the moonlighting weaker night agriculture; you could easily miss spots. Even now, with the lights on the tractors, the full moon of the crop is still a friend to the farmer. This inconsiderate neighbor can mow his lawn in the light of the silver harvest moon and get you up the wall.
What I would like to do now is follow the harvest moon across the sky from the eastern horizon to the western horizon all through the night and point to some other highlights of the night sky, although the lower celestial treasures will be washed moon 'and hard to see.
When this full harvest moon rises at dusk, it's a sight to behold. This huge orange orb that rises can be breathtaking; no word can describe it properly. Like any full moon on the rise, it has an orange hue to varying degrees, depending on the clarity of the earth's atmosphere. This is because the moonlight has to cross a larger part of the earth's atmosphere when it is near the horizon, scattering all the components, except the oranges and reds, of the light of the moon. the moon. When the moon goes up, its light does not have to go through so much atmosphere and becomes white. The moon also seems much bigger when it goes up or goes down. Believe it or not, it's just an optical illusion. The same thing happens with the sun and even the constellations when they are close to the horizon.
Next to the moon
As you watch the moon rise to the east, look at the top right and you will see at least two bright planets in the sky on either side of the southern horizon. They are Mars, suspended closer to the moon, and Saturn, a little further in the low sky of the southwest. Mars has definitely dropped in brightness since last month when it was at its closest point to Earth in 15 years. Even through a small telescope, you should be able to distinguish the ring system of Saturn and some dark spots on Mars, which are part of its vast valleys. The two planets can be a little blurry because they are so close to the horizon, especially Saturn.
If you are under the magic moonlight at midnight, the moon will radiate in the southern sky. At the naked eye, you can easily see the dark areas called maria. These are the volcanic plains of the moon. It's the darkest maria you look at when you see "the man on the moon". You could see the poodle on the right side of the moon. That's my favorite! The white areas are uplands and mountains. The craters completely dot the lunar surface and around the larger ones, you can see the radial patterns of the rays. If you look at our lunar neighbor with a telescope, I strongly advise you to look through sunglasses. It is so brilliant that you could win a big headache and maybe even get a little ugly.
As you enjoy the midnight moon, look into the low-east sky to find a small group of stars. It is the Pleiades, also known as the "Seven Little Sisters". From an astronomical point of view, this is a group of young stars just over 400 light years old, born together about 100 million years ago. By the way, a single light year is almost six trillion miles. It's not a weekend trip to the Pleiades.
If you shoot a sleepless night or are an early riser before the sun, you will see the harvest moon heading towards the western horizon and start turning orange again. Meanwhile, the eastern half of the sky will be lit up like a Christmas tree with so many bright stars and constellations. I call this part of the sky "Orion and his gang". The constellation of the capital is Orion the hunter with three bright stars in a row. The Orion Band is the bulk of the winter constellations we'll see in the evening sky in January and February, but if you're an early bird this time of year, you get a taste. As a bonus, the brightest star you can see in the east is actually the planet Jupiter visiting Orion and his band this year.
Enjoy the moonlit dance this week, even if it costs you a bit of sleep. Catch it up next weekend!
(Lynch is an amateur astronomer and a professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO radio in Minneapolis / St. Paul.)
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