September - On & Off Earth

Here's my take on September, sent to a new paper

Richmond Times Dispatch

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September 2023

On & Off Earth

Have you finished up your ‘once in a Blue Moon’ tasks? Your time is running out. August wraps with a second Full moon, a Blue Moon, on the evening of the 30th. The moon’s slightly oval path around Earth also bring our natural satellite about as close to us as it’s going to get in 2023 making it a Super Moon, too. It may look a little (14%) bigger but it will not look blue. The bright ‘star’ to the upper right of the moon that night is the ringed planet, Saturn.

Anyone sneaking in a late summer visit to the beach or Virginia’s amazing tidal rivers will need to be tide savvy during the days around that Super moon. Low tides will reveal a wide swath of sand but 6 hours later the ‘King’ high tides will likely make the beach almost disappear. Mix in a little extra wind from any of the storms now twisting up in the Atlantic and coastal flooding issues will quickly become an additional concern; be tide savvy.

An August with two full moons means the Harvest Moon, the Full moon closest to the Fall Equinox, is pushed back to near the end of September, the night of the 28/29th. For those tracking the sun through the constellations, our star moves from Leo into Virgo on the 17th.

To see the moon travel along the ecliptic (the plane of our Solar System and sun’s path across the sky) with Saturn that evening you will have to go outside. That is my hope for this column, to get you outside and once there, to encourage you to take a little longer, maybe more thoughtful look at your planet. It is far and away the best one we know of.

September is a month full of changes, fortunately, most are fairly gentle. Kicking off with Labor Day, summer’s semi-official end, schools open, pools close but the warm days of summer are not going anywhere. What is mostly gone, the crowds, leaving the area’s multitude of open spaces now truly open.

Slight timing adjustments will be needed as summer’s slow loss of daylight does picks up in September. We lose 70 minutes of daylight by month’s end; adjust accordingly. Still in Daylight Saving Time, sunrise may be when you notice that change the most. Early commuters, traveling east, may notice a very bright ‘star’ in the dawn sky. That is Venus. It has just caught and passed Earth and is back as the Morning Star.

For meteorologist, September is a Fall month. For Earth, Fall doesn’t begin until 2:50am on the 23rd when our orbit moves the sun back to a position neither north nor south but directly over the equator, the Fall Equinox. Earth’s atmosphere bends the light at sunrise and sunset pushing the day with exactly 12 hours of light and dark back to the 26th.

September also host’s the peak of Hurricane Season. Showing signs of picking up, the monster storms that dissipate the summer’s excess ocean heat require us all to be aware. Sudden, chaotic change seems to be the new normal on Earth and while we have mostly been spared the worst of the heat or floods or fires this year here in the Old Dominion, there is nothing but change and being complacent does not seem wise.

But, what would be wise, get out and enjoy the subtle changes September offers. Hints of color in the trees, a few leaves, not pulling their weight are falling free, birds, summering in the far north, are passing through, snacking on the bounty of just ripened seeds. Been waiting on a Blue moon to spur yourself to outdoor action? Your time in now.

Squirrel chillin' his nuts