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Ephemeris: 09/22/2026 – Autumn will fall upon us tonight

September 22, 2026 Leave a comment Go to comments

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, September 22nd. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 10 minutes, setting at 7:40, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:31. The Moon, half way from first quarter to full, will set at 3:58 tomorrow morning.

The season of fall is about to, ah well, fall upon us and in a few weeks so will the leaves. At 8:06 this evening (00:06 UT tomorrow) the Sun will cross the celestial equator heading south. The celestial equator is an imaginary line in the sky above the earth’s equator. At that point, the Sun will theoretically set at the North Pole and rise at the South Pole. The day is called the autumnal equinox and the daylight hours today is 12 hours and 10 minutes instead of 12 hours exactly. That’s due to our atmosphere and our definition of sunrise and sunset. The reason for the cooler weather now and the cold weather this winter is that the length of daylight is shortening, and the Sun rides lower in the sky, spreading its heat over a larger area, thus diluting its intensity.

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

The Sun's path through the apparent dome of the sky on an equinox day from the Traverse City/Interlochen area in Michigan
The Sun’s path through the apparent dome of the sky on an equinox day from the Traverse City/Interlochen area in Michigan. The Sun rises due east and sets due west. The Sun is plotted every 15 minutes. This is a stereographic projection which compresses the image near the zenith and enlarges the image towards the horizon. The blue azimuth and altitude marks are 15 degrees apart. Created using my LookingUp app and GIMP.
Sunrise on the autumnal equinox
That is not a pumpkin on the head of the motorcyclist. That’s the Sun rising as I’m traveling east on South Airport Road south of Traverse City, MI on the autumnal equinox. This is the east-west section of the road. The Sun is rising over the hills some 6 miles to the east. When the Sun is on the celestial equator, it rises due east and sets due west. Credit: Bob Moler.
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