1) The fall of the Northern Hemisphere (and spring in the South) will begin on September 23 at 9h 50m Peninsular time (8h 50m in the Canary Islands).

2) That day, the day of the equinox, the night will have a duration equal to that of the day: 12 hours. And from there the word equinox is derived, from the Latin aequi noctium which means "equal night".

3) Summer time will end on Sunday, October 27: at 3 o'clock in the morning (2 o'clock in the Canary Islands) we will have to delay the clocks until 2 o'clock (1 o'clock in the Canaries).

4) In the equinox, the two poles of the Earth are the same distance from the Sun and only an exact half of the Earth is illuminated. On that day the Sun rises exactly at the east point and sets exactly at the west point.

5) In the terrestrial poles the day of the equinox is very special. In the North Pole it goes from a period of 6 months of day to a period of 6 months of night. There, on the 23rd, the Sun will be seen for 12 hours as half a flush disk on the horizon that hides so as not to be seen again until the spring equinox.

6) The first full moon of this autumn will take place on October 13 in the constellation of Cetus (The Whale), this full moon, the closest to the equinox, is usually called the 'Moon of the harvest', as the light of this plenilunio allowed to extend to the night the work of own collection of this time of the year.

7) The planets Mars and Venus, which had not seen each other for months, return to the skies this fall. Mars will be visible at dawn, and Mercury will also make an appearance during the sunrises of late November and early December. Venus, along with Jupiter and Saturn will be the autumn evening stars.

8) The great astronomical event of autumn will take place on November 11 when Mercury passes in front of the Sun. This phenomenon will be visible from Spain

9) The most interesting meteor showers this fall are the Leonids and the Geminids. The Leonids will reach their maximum activity around November 17, five days after the full moon. The Geminids will have their maximum on December 13, that is, the day after the full moon. Thus, both star showers will take place in conditions that will not be favorable for meteor observation.

10) This fall, which will last 89 days and 20 hours, will end on December 22 with the beginning of winter.

Rafael Bachiller is an astronomer and director of the National Astronomical Observatory (IGN)

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