First, Dave Heller and Dr. Derrick Pitts discuss the Autumnal equinox, which is this Thursday at 10:21am.

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:

Image: Photographing London via Flickr

This Friday’s full moon is both the Harvest Moon and a penumbral eclipse. Penumbral means that the moon passes through the outer shadow of the earth, which is the weakest part of the Earth’s shadow. The effect is so slight that the eclipse can barely be seen. The Harvest Moon is the full moon closest to the Autumnal Equinox, which falls on September 22 this year.

Mars and Saturn can be seen in the southwest night sky – with Venus rising out of the ever earlier September sunsets.

Oleg Skripochka and Alexsey Ovchinin returned from the ISS last week along with the new American record-holder for time in space, Jeff Williams. Williams has spent 534 days off planet, more time in space than any other American. The next closest American astronaut is Peggy Whitsun who after her next flight will be at 531 days off planet. Amazingly, Williams is only 14th in the list of off-planeteers; Russian Gennady Padalka is in first place with 878 days off-planet.