Autumn 2022 in 10 astronomical keys to admire the skies

• Appointment with the sky The best astrophotographs of the year

• Chronicle of the cosmos The spectacular Ghost Galaxy and other cosmic whirlpools revealed by the James Webb telescope

Fall begins on Friday

at 3:04 a.m.

,

,

... here we indicate the ten

that will help you enjoy the skies in the harvest season.

1. Beginning of autumn

Autumn

in the northern hemisphere (and spring in the south) will begin on

, peninsular time (02:04 in the Canary Islands).

2. Longer nights

The beginning of

is the time when the night gains ground faster than the day.

Every day that passes, the nights get 3 minutes longer.

3. Harvest Moon

The

this fall will take place on October

in the constellation of Pisces.

This

, the first after the equinox, is usually called

, since the light of this full moon allowed the harvesting work typical of this time of year to be extended into the night.

4. Jupiter and Saturn

The giant planets will dominate the fall night skies.

will be visible, very bright, throughout the night;

and

, more discreet, during most of the night.

5. Mars at opposition

Mars

will be visible for a large part of each autumn night.

It will reach its opposition on December 8, when it will be splendid for being fully illuminated by the Sun and very close to Earth.

6. Venus and Mercury

Venus

will still shine at dawn until the first days of October, when it will cease to be seen and will not reappear until the evenings of December.

The elusive

can be seen, very low, at sunrise until October 24;

and it will not be seen again until December 8, when it will make its appearance in the twilight.

7. Two eclipses

This

brings us

.

The first of them is a

that will take place on

.

It will be visible from northeast Africa, western Asia and a large part of Europe.

In Spain it can only be seen from the peninsular northeast and the Balearic Islands, and with very low magnitudes (around 10%).

The

will take place on

, it will be a total of the Moon and cannot be seen from Spain.

8. Rain of stars

The most substantial

the fall, the

and

, will occur under reasonably favorable viewing conditions.

Indeed, the

will

, while the

will peak on

.

In both cases, the maximum will occur during the

, so it will be preferable to observe the meteors during the first part of the night.

9. Winter time

Daylight

end on Sunday, October 30.

That day, at 3 a.m. (2 a.m. in the Canary Islands) we will have to set the clocks back until 2 a.m. (1 a.m. in the Canary Islands).

(at the official time) and the afternoons will seem shorter.

10. End of Autumn

This fall

.

It will end on December 21, giving way to winter.

This is how the Earth is illuminated at the equinox.

Rafael Bachiller is the director of the National Astronomical Observatory (National Geographic Institute) and an academic of the

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