Good night for a birthday.

It was a good birthday. Thank you to all - I am overwhelmed.

Here's tonights forecast for the moon. I hope you see this post in time to enjoy it. The following is from Mel Peterson, retired Physics Professor, Augustana.

If the sky is clear tonight look for a special full moon, the Harvest Moon. As the sun sets in the west a full moon will rise in the east. Northern summer ends at 10:09 CDT – the autumnal equinox – as autumn begins. The planet Jupiter, the very Bright planet Jupiter, will be near the fullMoon. As the night progresses both the moon and Jupiter will move up and across the sky and will be visible most of the night. Most of the time the full Harvest Moon occurs before or after the autumnal equinox. The last time the Harvest Moon happened with the equinox was in 1991. If the sky is clear you should be able to understand why this Moon became the “Harvest Moon.”

You might also notice that the Moon, when it is near the horizon, appears to be unusually wide. This is the not-well-understood moon illusion. Hold a quarter at arms length and check out the size of the moon lw in the east and compare when it gets high overhead. Same size?

On the night of the 20-21 Jupiter was closer than it will be until 2022. And it will remain closer to Earth for the next few weeks. The Moon willrise about an hour later each night and will be in its waning phase. It of course will be farther to the East each night. Jupiter will continue to be brighter than any star for several weeks. If you have access to binoculars try to spot the 4 bright moons of Jupiter. They can be spotted with“steady” binoculars.