Falling Forward

First, Dave Heller and Dr. Derrick Pitts discuss the Autumnal equinox, which is this Thursday at 10:21am.
Next stops? Halloween, the time change on November 6th, and one of Dr. Pitts’ favorite days of the year, the Winter Solstice!

Planet-gazers still have plenty to look at this week. Venus, Saturn, Mars early evening sky. Venus sinks within an hour after sunset. It’s also a good week to try to catch Mercury in the pre-dawn sky.

Lots of interesting anniversaries this week:
– Father of the American Apollo program Werner Von Braun arrived in the US on Sept. 20th in 1945. He was captured in Germany where he ran the V-2 rocket program, then brought to the US, where he established our rocket program.
– The Russian robotic probe Luna 16 also landed on the moon on this date in 1970. It only stayed on the moon for 5 days – it returned lunar samples to earth at the end of the week.
– Author H.G. Wells and Composer Gustave Holst share a birthday on Sept. 21 in 1866 and 1874, respectively.

Image: Photographing London via Flickr