Photography And Half-Thoughts By Mitchell Hegman

...because some of it is pretty and some of it is not.

Tuesday, September 23, 2025

The Autumnal Equinox

At exactly 12:19 yesterday afternoon, the sun crossed the celestial equator on its way south. That instant marked the start of autumn. It’s not a date we simply penciled in on the calendar—it’s a real event in the sky, measurable down to the minute.

The word equinox means “equal night,” and though day and night are not perfectly balanced, they are close. From here, the tilt of the Earth gives Montana shorter days and longer nights until winter solstice.

On the ground, changes are already underway. Bull elk have started to bugle, their high, fluting calls echoing through mountain valleys and carrying across the prairie as they gather harems of cows. And, of course, some trees have started blushing with colors.

Desiree, having lived on islands where the sun holds high in the sky and seasons exist in name only, finds autumn dazzling. She’s particularly enamored with trees that blush red before shedding their leaves wholesale. Last year, we planted an autumn splendor buckeye near the front drive to provide us with a splash of red in the fall. Over the last week or so, the tree has flushed through with warm red colors.

Desiree is not disappointed.

Buckeye Tree

Desiree Admiring from the Porch

—Mitchell Hegman

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