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Ephemeris: 09/19/2024 – The Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival

September 19, 2024 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Thursday, September 19th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 17 minutes, setting at 7:44, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:28. The Moon, 2 days past full, will rise at 8:30 this evening.

Our Harvest Moon also marks the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. I’ve been too busy with the lunar eclipse to cover it on Tuesday. It is to honor the Moon and the story of Chang’e a mortal woman who took an elixir and flew off to the Moon and became a goddess. Another story revolves around the Jade Rabbit pounding Medicine. I sometimes talk about the figure of a rabbit seen on the face of the Moon. He is a companion to Chang’e, and has a mortar and pestle on the Moon with him. He pounds out the medicine that makes the inhabitants of the sky immortal. The Chinese lunar probes are named Chang’e. Chang’e 3 landed on the Moon in 2013 and sent out a lunar rover named Yutu, the Jade Rabbit. They have made other landings since.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT – 4 hours). Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

Jade Rabbit on the Moon
Jade Rabbit and Mortar on the Moon. Credit: Zeimusu, Creative Commons.
Categories: Celebration, Chinese, The Moon Tags: , , ,