calendar

Aug
31
Sun
Triple Moon Conjunction @ Earth
Aug 31 @ 4:15 am – 5:15 am

liveseasoned_fullmoonSounds pretty fancy, right?  It simply means three solar system bodies coming together, not in distance, but in perspective.  For star watchers it means some pretty sweet night sights!  It’s particularly exciting when the moon and planets are involved.

This time a crescent moon, Mars and Saturn will cluster together in a bright and beautiful display around dusk.

Sep
7
Sun
Full Harvest Moon
Sep 7 – Sep 8 all-day
Full Harvest Moon

Take a peek at the sky tonight and you’ll see a full moon.  A full moon is when the moon and the sun are opposite of each other from an earth perspective.

Sep
8
Mon
Mid-Autumn Festival (Moon Cake Festival)
Sep 8 @ 12:36 am – 1:36 am
Mid-Autumn Festival (Moon Cake Festival)

Also called the Moon Cake Festival, China’s harvest festival is an occasion to scoff these sweet treats. The cakes, made of a thin dough shell containing fillings such as jelly, dates and nuts or red bean paste, start appearing everywhere a month before the celebration. If they’re not sick of the snacks by the time of the event, celebrants eat them within view of the real star of the festival: the moon. Held on the September full moon, during the autumn equinox, the tradition is about observing the transition of the seasons. In Japan, one of the other Asian countries where faces turn to the night sky, people even climb onto rooftops to get closer to the moon.

Read more here.

Sep
10
Wed
Uranus and the Moon
Sep 10 @ 10:00 pm – 10:15 pm
Uranus and the Moon

The waning gibbous moon passes just north of Uranus in the constellation Pisces. The moon will occult Uranus as seen from eastern Canada, Greenland, and northern Siberia.

Sep
14
Sun
Aldebaran and the Moon
Sep 14 @ 11:57 pm – Sep 15 @ 12:12 am
Aldebaran and the Moon

The waning last quarter moon will pass just north of the bright star Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus.

Sep
18
Thu
Imilchil Wedding Moussem
Sep 18 @ 12:44 am – Sep 25 @ 1:44 am
Imilchil Wedding Moussem

Like the Cure Salée, the festival held in the High Atlas town of Imilchil is all about livestock and finding a partner. The most famous example of 600-plus moussems, the event is a homecoming celebration for herders who have spent the summer taking advantage of grazing grounds. The cattle fair adds to the chaos created by souqs (markets) and nomadic campgrounds, which look as striking as the surrounding mountains.

Read more here.

Sep
21
Sun
Cows’ Ball
Sep 21 @ 12:47 am – 1:47 am
Cows' Ball

Kitsch, possibly of the unintentional kind, comes out to play at the Cows’ Ball. More than 50 years old, the festival marks a winter homecoming; not of men, but of cattle, which return to the alpine Bohinj valley after a summer spent in green pastures. Daisy and friends are truly the belles of the rural ball, as they are decorated with wreaths and shown off on a parade. Accompanied by herders, cheesemakers, milkmaids and other dairy-farming types, they pass Lake Bohinj and, rising 130m above it, Govin Waterfall. The falls are only active after heavy rain, so hopefully there won’t be any spray to spoil the animals’ get-up.

Read more here.

Mercury close to Spica
Sep 21 @ 11:58 pm – Sep 22 @ 12:13 am
Mercury close to Spica

The planet Mercury will pass close to the bright star Spica in Virgo. This is a particularly good apparition of Mercury for observers in the Southern Hemisphere, less so for northerners.

Sep
22
Mon
Equinox
Sep 22 @ 10:30 pm – 10:45 pm
Equinox

The sun crosses the celestial equator moving southward. Day and Night are of equal length. The sun rises due east and sets due west everywhere on Earth. This is the autumnal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, the vernal equinox (Spring) in the Southern Hemisphere.

Sep
23
Tue
Hermanus Whale Festival
Sep 23 @ 12:54 am – Sep 30 @ 1:54 am
Hermanus Whale Festival

Situated near Africa’s southernmost tip, Hermanus has a front-row view of the Cape Whale Route. During migrating season, people flock to the clifftops to glimpse the endangered southern right whale. Given that it overlooks Walker Bay, into which 70 whales have squeezed, the town once took its blubber-related fortune for granted. In an attempt to formalise the clifftop viewing, it started its festival and introduced the Whale Crier. The world’s only such crier, his blasts on the kelp horn are coded to direct eager cetacean-spotters.

Read more here.