Home > Concepts, Ephemeris Program, The Moon > Ephemeris: 09/14/2026 – The young September Moon slowly enters the evening sky

Ephemeris: 09/14/2026 – The young September Moon slowly enters the evening sky

September 14, 2026 Leave a comment Go to comments

This is Ephemeris for Monday, September 14th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 34 minutes, setting at 7:55, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:21. The Moon, half way from new to first quarter, will set at 9:07 this evening.

Something interesting is happening to the moon in late summer and early autumn. The moon, when either near new or near full, tends to hang low near the horizon for a long time. We are now about 4 days past new moon, and it is hanging low in the southwestern sky, and will set only about an hour and 12 minutes after the sun. Later this month we’ll have the Harvest Moon when the moon rises at short daily intervals later each night around full moon. I call it the Harvest Moon effect and that allowed farmers of old together in their crops by extending twilight. What the young moon does right now is keeping it really low in the sky so as a crescent it’s not easy to observe low on the southwestern horizon.

The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EDT, UT – 4 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

A diagram that shows why the moon is slow in taking over the evening sky in September after new moon.
This is a diagram that shows why the moon is slow in taking over the evening sky in September after new moon, because its path away from the sun run low near the horizon. What September giveth, September will taketh away. Come near full moon, it will be slow to leave the evening sky. The reason is the ecliptic, at sunset, runs low in the south. At first quarter at or near sunset, the moon is in the south 90 degrees from, and three months later that where the sun is now, which takes us into December which is why the sun is so low in December bringing our winter season. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts), with added annotations.

Categories: Concepts, Ephemeris Program, The Moon
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