22/09/2026
Today (Tuesday 22nd September) is the autumn equinox 🍂 It's the moment the Sun crosses directly above the Earth's equator, and for one day, almost everywhere on the planet experiences roughly equal amounts of daylight and darkness.
From today, the nights win. The days get shorter, the mornings darker, and the world tilts gradually toward winter.
🌍 Day and night are almost exactly 12 hours each, everywhere on Earth
☀️ The Sun rises due east and sets due west. The only two days of the year this happens (the other is the spring equinox in March)
🧭 Ancient civilisations used the equinox to build calendars, plan harvests, and navigate. Stonehenge, the Pyramids at Giza, and the Mayan temple of Chichen Itza are all aligned to mark it.
❄️ At the North Pole today, the Sun sits exactly on the horizon... the last time it will be seen for six months
🌏 At the South Pole, the Sun is just rising, beginning six months of continuous daylight
The equinox happens because Earth doesn't sit upright. It tilts at 23.5 degrees and that tilt is why we have seasons, why the Arctic has midnight sun in summer, and why the length of a day changes throughout the year.
This is the kind of thing that comes alive inside the Science Dome. Our Earth Science and Space and Astronomy sessions cover the Earth's tilt, the seasons, day and night, and how humans have used the sky to make sense of the world for thousands of years.
Happy first day of autumn 🌍
