-Thursday the 17th:  The planet Uranus lines up opposite the Sun this week, so it rises around sunset and remains in the sky all night. It is brightest for the year, too, although you need binoculars to see it.  It is along the border between Aquarius and Pisces. Star charts will help!

-Friday the 18th: The moon is “new” today as it crosses the imaginary line between Earth and Sun, marking the start of a new cycle of phases. It will return to view as a thin crescent, low in the west at nightfall, by Sunday. See how early you can spot it again.

-Saturday the 19th: The lion will have a double heart tomorrow morning, as the planet Venus cozies up to his “regular” heart, the star Regulus. They are low in the east at first light. Venus is the brilliant “morning star,” with fainter Regulus just to its right.

-Sunday the 20th: Look toward the east, an hour or two before sunrise the next few days for a ghostly pyramid of light rising from the horizon. It may look like early twilight, but it’s really the zodiacal light, which is a glow that comes from far beyond Earth.

-Monday the 21st: Fall arrives tomorrow as the Sun crosses the equator from north to south, marking the autumnal equinox. Day and night are roughly equal lengths, and the Sun rises due east and sets due west across the whole planet.

-Tuesday the 22nd: Today is the autumnal equinox, which marks the beginning of fall in the northern hemisphere and spring in the south. Over the next three months, the Sun will move farther south in the sky so we will see less and less sunlight each day until after the winter solstice in December.

-Wednesday the 23rd: For the next two evenings, look toward the southwest for a lovely site.  The Moon and orange Antares, the heart of Scorpius the scorpion, huddle close in the evening.

-Thursday the 24th: Cassiopeia, legendary queen of Ethiopiea, is immortalized in the heavens with five bright stars forming a flying “W” or “M.” The brightest of these is Schedar, a giant star more than 100 light-years away. Cassiopeia is in the northeast this evening.

The autumnal equinox is here! I always look forward to the four days a year that mark the beginning of the seasons in our lives. It’s fascinating to me that the day is exactly the same length as the night on these two “equal” days and the extreme differences of day and night on the solstice days. The equinox starts the fall season in our area of the world and the very next day begins the cycle of shorter days and longer nights that follow. Autumn in particular seems to swiftly change conveying colder days, colorful trees, fires in the fireplace and anticipation of the traditional fall holidays, which are not too far away…Halloween and Thanksgiving. Those of us in the mountains start to anxiously look to the skies and begin predicting the first snowfall of the year. Some eagerly, such as children and snow sports enthusiasts and some with dread (you know who you are!) Our ancestors looked upon this day as the middle of autumn rather than the start, as we do today. The harvest was hopefully in and preparations were being accomplished awaiting the long winter months to come The skies tell the story as well, as Scorpius the scorpion dips down below the western horizon and the mighty Taurus the bull with the great hunter Orion rising in the east. So, acknowledge the significance of the day as you rise on Tuesday morning and retire in the evening on this very equalized day!