Northern autumn starting

The equinox comes on Friday September 23.

See the end note about enlarging illustrations.

The moment when the Sun crosses into the southern hemisphere of the sky is 1:06 by Universal Time. This is 4 or more hours earlier – and thus back in Thursday September 22 – by American clocks, which are still on the falsified “daylight-shifting time” till November 6. So the time of our picture, for the US Central time zone, is only minutes before the actual equinox.

As you can see, the “anti-Sun” (as I call the point 180° from the Sun) is as much above the eastern horizon as the Sun is below the western. Half way between them is the “antapex of Earth’s way” – the point we are traveling away from at this stage in our orbit.

The outer planets, as shown in one of the space diagrams in Astronomical Calendar 2022,

are still mostly in our evening sky: west of that anti-Sun point. But Jupiter is about to cross it – that is, to be at opposition – on Sep. 26.

You’ll be able to see Saturn; Jupiter will become clearer as it climbs from the horizon. Neptune probably Uranus, and certainly dwarf planet Pluto are below the naked-eye limit.

The stars I show in the sky scene are those that are bright enough to make up the pictures of the constellations; they are those between which we need to draw the form-lines. They may or may all be visible; it depends on sky conditions.

The astronomy articles in The Guardian are accompanied by diagrams that seem to me lamentable.

The constellation-forming stars are grossly over-emphasized. Giving such prominence to a third-magnitude star such as Sheratan (Beta Arietis) and its seldom-used name is the wrong level of detail. Do you think you could use a map such as this to find anything in the after-sunset sky? I wrote to the editors, offering to supply versions like this, which I had simplified, but perhaps not enough.

No response.

Today’s Guardian chart is even worse.

The dots for Betelgeuse and Aldebaran are no larger than those for stars hundreds of times fainter. And would you recognize in those nets of lines the shapes of the Twins and giant Orion?

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ILLUSTRATIONS in these posts are made with precision but have to be inserted in another format.  You may be able to enlarge them on your monitor.  One way: right-click, and choose “View image” or “Open image in new tab”, then enlarge.  Or choose “Copy image”, then put it on your desktop, then open it.  On an iPad or phone, use the finger gesture that enlarges (spreading with two fingers, or tapping and dragging with three fingers).  Other methods have been suggested, such as dragging the image to the desktop and opening it in other ways.

Sometimes I make improvements or corrections to a post after publishing  it.  If you click on the title, rather than on ‘Read more’, I think you are sure to see the latest version.  Or you can click ‘Refresh’ to get the latest version.

This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun.