September Equinox 2010 Sun and moon rises and sets

On Septempber 25, 2010, a one-day silent meditation retreat honored the equinox that happened on Sept. 22 at 10:09 p.m. CDT. I photographed sunrise, moonset and sunset, moonrise from a local high point on the evening and morning before and after the equinox for a panoramic view of both, including Jupiter, in opposition (in photo at right, see the planet Jupiter to lower left of moon on Sept. 23 at 5:57 a.m. CDT). It is the beach end of the boardwalk across Deer Lake State Park from the parking lot.

Day and night are approximately equal on an equinox. This is true for both the northern and southern hemispheres of earth. Local sunrise at 6:32 a.m. Local sunset at approximately 6:40 p.m.

These images are part of a panorama being submitted to World Wide Panorama on the theme: Crossroads. Coordinates: 30°18' 59.88'N 086°04' 40.9"W.

Witness crossroads of the mind, ground, sky, and time. You and I are here now, in our minds. On the ground, a wooden ramp intersects with beach and sea. In the sky, moon, sun and planets seem to have crisscrossing orbits overhead. In time, the September equinox happens at the exact moment when the equators of earth and sun cross.

In 2010 the equinox was on September 23 at 3:09 universal time. Here, the equinox was on September 22 at 22:09 or 10:09 p.m. CDT.

In the west, the panorama shows sunset the evening before the equinox and the tiny full moon sets the morning after the equinox.

In the east, the panorama shows sunrise the morning after the equinox and the tiny full moon rises the evening before the equinox. Using QuickTime, the controller bar shows the locations.

Aligning and pulling our attention opposite the sun, a full moon on the equinox happens every 19 years. Also rare on this equinox, Jupiter was exactly opposite the sun on Sept. 19, adding to the moon's effect. Jupiter was too close to the moon to see through earth's atmosphere in sunrise/sunset photos, but know that it was there.

The Panorama

There are four ways to view the same scene: QuickTime small or full screen. Flash small or full screen.

Equipment

Canon 300D (Digital Rebel) digital SLR, EF-S 10-22mm lens, ISO 100, 1/60 s, evening at f13, morning at f5/6. Nodal Ninja pano head. 12 photos each at 17mm focal length (stitched as 28mm lens). Composited elements of two panoramas as one in Adobe Photoshop CS4. Stitched panos in QuicktTime Virtual Reality Authoring Studio (QTVRAS). Added annotations and saved as .mov in QuickTime 7 Pro.

See also March equinox 2010 sun, June solstice 2010 sun, December solstice sun, and all 4 Seasons. See Equinox, September 2010.