First full day of Fall - Fall Equinox

Did you know that today was the first full day of fall, but that it officially began at 11:13 PM EST? What makes yesterday evening so cool was that we had a "harvest" moon shining for the first time since 1991. Now some of you may not really care about that, but for those of us who like all kinds of fun trivia, this is really cool stuff.

How many of you remember what a Harvest Moon really is? Ah ha, thought so... For those of us who "forgot" this information that we may have learned in elementary school so many aeon's ago, the full moon closest to the September Equinox is the traditional definition of the harvest moon. So, it is really and truly a harvest moon because we had a full moon ON the September equinox.

I thought it would be nice to have a little information on the Fall equinox. I remember in school that I was taught the Fall and Spring Equinox were supposed to have the length of day to be exactly as long as the length of night. Apparently, my instructors were incorrect, or, most likely, I got my facts mixed up. The true days of day/night equality fall AFTER the Fall equinox and fall BEFORE the Spring equinox. This clarification came from Geoff Chester who is a public affairs specialists with the U.S. Naval Observatory (does he observe belly buttons??? hmmm...)

Basically though, for most of us, essentially the most important thing about last night was that is was basically as long as the daylight hours were. From here until the Winter solstice, our daylight hours will get shorter and shorter and the night time will be longer and longer. Unfortunately for us working folk, we do not get to sleep longer because the nights are longer, it just means we get very little daylight to play in. Granted, we get more daylight than in Alaska, but we do get short days.

On the Northern Hemisphere's Fall equinox (today), a person standing at the North Pole would see the sun skimming across the horizon, signaling the beginning of six months of darkness. Today a person standing on the South Pole would also see the sun go across the horizon, which now begins their six months of uninterrupted daylight.

Another cool thing about the Autumnal equinox is that this is only one of two times a year when the sun rises due east and sets due west. So, if you are lost, that is the day you know where due East and due West are... This is also one of two times in our year where if you were standing on the Equator, you can see the sun passing directly overhead. The other time of year that this occurs is in the Spring.

So, now you have some fun actual facts regarding the Autumnal Equinox and what a harvest moon is. I will see if I can rummage up some fun traditions for the Fall equinox and provide that information to you tomorrow.

Until tomorrow...