The season began to change slowly, and then fast; darkness falls early. Summer’s longest days, shortest nights have edged to equal daylight and darkness. The Autumnal Equinox occurs on Friday the 22nd at 4 p.m. Sunrise and sunset times are around 12 hours apart for the rest of the month. From September 1 through early November, at 3-week intervals, another hour of darkness is accumulated. Then, the pace slows as the northern hemisphere moves toward the Winter Solstice.
Now that darkness is overtaking our morning hours and falls earlier in the evening, with just the effort of looking up we may begin and end the day musing on heavenly lights: planets, stars, the changing phases of the moon and an occasional fireball!
Into October, about half an hour before sunrise, seek out planet Venus, the brilliant Morning Star. A bigger reward may be had about an hour before sunup when the sky is dark enough to see Venus in the company of Leo the Lion’s brightest star, Regulus, and planets Mercury and Mars, all in a line above the eastern horizon. This celestial line-up is visible for the rest of the week, after which Mercury drops into the sun’s glare. Bring binoculars.
Today, the 19th, sunrise is at 6:37; sunset 6:57. On October 1, sunrise is at 6:50; sunset 6:36.
For evening stargazers, following sundown spot Jupiter close to the west-southwest skyline. Tonight, Jupiter sets about an hour and a quarter after the sun. On October 1, the planet sets 50 minutes after sunset. As September turns to October, bid farewell to Jupiter. Turn to the left, to the south-southwest where Antares, the red heart star of Scorpius the Scorpion, shines as twilight deepens. Planet Saturn is the bright star-like object above and left of Antares. Catch the summertime Scorpion stretched from south to southwest within an hour and a half of sunset, and bid a fond farewell.
In his photographer’s statement, Peter Blacksberg describes how, in his photograph taken in Great Barrington, a town not far from Manhattan, we see a sky full of stars and the Milky Way just as it shows up in images from wilderness areas.