Happy fall! Equinox sunset watch with Alice at Solstice Park, plus views from beyond

As of 22 minutes ago, autumn has arrived! Above, our quick Instagram clip of Alice Enevoldsen talking astronomy and weather with the youngest attendees at her Solstice Park sunset watch – 22nd time she has led an equinox/solstice watch! (added) As usual, she brought a planetary prop:

Sometimes, the littlest detail attracts attention – like the armband with her name:

Color streaked the sky as Alice explained where the sun lines up for the equinox:

She answered a variety of questions, not just about the equinox – for example, she was asked questions about the official times of sunset and sunrise and how they’re determined – locally, for example, they don’t seem to take the Olympics into account, so she points out the sun usual disappears behind the mountains about ten minutes before the listed sunset moment. Between sunset watches, Alice writes about other astronomy news on her site AlicesAstroInfo.com, and every month or so, she writes a new edition of “Skies Over West Seattle” for WSB.

SUNSET, FROM ELSEWHERE IN WEST SEATTLE: Below, James Bratsanos shared the full-strength sunset view we didn’t quite get from Solstice Park (where the sun sets behind Lincoln Park’s beautiful forest this time of year):

(added) A few more sunset views have since come in:

(Photo copyright 2014, Eric Shalit/Box Turtle Design)
From John Bartell at Brace Point:

P.S. Looks like rain’s in store for the first day of fall.

4 Replies to "Happy fall! Equinox sunset watch with Alice at Solstice Park, plus views from beyond"

  • Alice September 22, 2014 (8:25 pm)

    Thanks everyone, for coming!

  • wssz September 23, 2014 (12:50 am)

    Thank you for an excellent presentation! Super interesting. It’s the first one I’ve gone to but after tonight, I’m a major fan. Looking forward to attending many more.

  • Maggie September 23, 2014 (8:25 am)

    Long time listener, first time caller. Been reading about Alice’s sunset watch events for years now – this was the first I attended. It was fantastic! I learned so much. I was schooled by 8 year olds they knew so much about astronomy! The view was awesome! Thanks to Alice for a great presentation, and to WSB for making me aware all these years. So glad I attended last night!

  • Paul Skeie September 24, 2014 (12:04 am)

    So nice to read about your equinox event and to see the photos. Official sunset times are often quite theoretical, ignoring shading by terrain. If you want to see sunrise and sunset times taking the Olympics into account, or other mountains for that matter, you can do your own calculations for any location at http://suncurves.com.

    All the best from Bergen, Norway.
    Paul Skeie

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