The Equal Night
Credit:
STS-68 Crew,
NASA
Yesterday
the
Sun crossed the celestial equator heading south,
marking the Equinox -- the first day of Autumn in
the northern hemisphere and Spring in the
south.
Equinox means equal night and with the Sun
on the celestial equator,
Earthlings
will experience 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness.
For those in the northern hemisphere,
the days
will continue to grow shorter with
the Sun marching lower in the sky as winter
approaches.
A few weeks after the Autumnal Equinox of 1994,
the Crew of the Shuttle Endeavor
recorded this image of
the
Sun poised above the Earth's limb.
Glare illuminates Endeavor's
vertical tail (pointing toward the Earth) along with
radar equipment in
the payload bay.