Don’t forget to check out the total lunar eclipsed on the night of September 27th. It will be easy to see if the skies are clear. The action starts around 9:00 PM with totality around 10:45. You can get complete details for your location at this link.
Lunar eclipses are fairly common compared to solar eclipses but this lunar eclipse also corresponds with the so-called Super Moon when the moon is near its closest approach to earth. That will make the moon slightly larger and brighter than normal (about 10%) so the eclipse with last a bit longer than usual.
Although there is noting to see in the sky, you might also want to go out and do a celebratory dance at 4:21 AM on the 23rd which is the Autumnal Equinox and the beginning of fall in the northern hemisphere. Contrary to popular belief spread on the Internet, you can not more easily balance and egg on its end at the equinox – its simply the point in Earth’s orbit around the sun in which day and night are of equal length. There is no measurable gravitational effect.
Jim Stratigos – Resident Astronomer