Fri., Sept. 16 6:22 6:49
Sat., Sept. 17 6:23 6:48
Sun., Sept. 18 6:24 6:46
Mon., Sept. 19 6:25 6:44
Tues., Sept. 20 6:26 6:43
Wed., Sept. 21 6:27 6:41
Thurs., Sept. 22 6:28 6:39
Fri., Sept. 23 6:29 6:37
Two bright objects rise in the eastern sky tonight after 9 p.m. — the gibbous moon rises and nearby the bright planet Jupiter. You can’t miss them. The two are in the zodiacal constellation Aries.
Tomorrow and Sunday night, the moon alone appears close to the star cluster Pleiades in the zodiacal constellation Taurus.
The moon passes through the constellations Gemini and Cancer next week. Next Friday morning, one week from today, the moon appears in the early morning as a crescent and near the red planet Mars. The two are together in Cancer. Early risers can see the two before 6 a.m. — look high in the east.
Autumn arrives next Friday, officially and astronomically, at 5:05 a.m. This is the moment when scientists calculate that the sun passes from the Northern Hemisphere across the celestial equator into the Southern Hemisphere.
Like the moon and planets, the sun moves along the zodiac. But on this morning, the sun spends a brief moment passing over the celestial equator.
The length of the day and night should be equal, 12 hours long, on that date, but earth’s atmosphere, acting like a lens, adds a few moments to the daylight time between sunrise and sunset.