The Equal Night
STS-68 Crew, NASA
Today
the Sun
crosses the celestial equator heading south --
marking the Autumnal Equinox, the first day of Autumn.
Equinox means equal night and with the Sun
on the celestial equator,
Earthlings
will experience 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness.
Then, for those in the northern hemisphere,
the days will begin 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.
The glare illuminates Endeavor's
vertical tail (pointing toward the Earth) along with
radar equipment in
the payload bay.