Can you believe it’s Autumn already…. well Meteorological at least (see below for explanation nicked for the UK met office). Keats called this time of the year the ‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’, Autumn is a season famous for its harvest time, turning leaves, cooling temperatures and darkening nights.

here are just a few of the photos taken this morning as I fed the sheep.

Meteorological season

The meteorological autumn begins on 01 September and ends on 30 November.

The meteorological seasons consists of splitting the seasons into four periods made up of three months each. These seasons are split to coincide with our Gregorian calendar making it easier for meteorological observing and forecasting to compare seasonal and monthly statistics. By the meteorological calendar, the first day of autumn is the 1 September.

The seasons are defined as Spring (March, April, May), Summer (June, July, August), Autumn (September, October, November) and Winter (December, January, February).

Astronomical season

This astronomical autumn begins on around 22nd September and ends on about 20th December. (changes a bit each year)

The astronomical calendar determines the seasons due to the 23.5 degree tilt of the Earth’s rotational axis in relation to its orbit around the sun. Both equinoxes and solstices are related to the Earth’s orbit around the sun.

Solstices and equinoxes are considered to be the astronomical transition points between the seasons and mark key stages in the astronomical cycle of the earth. In a year there are two equinoxes (spring and autumn) and two solstices (summer and winter). The dates of the The Equinox and Solstice aren’t fixed due to the Earth’s elliptical orbit of the sun. The Earth’s orbit around the sun means that in early January, the sun is closest (known as perihelion) and in early July it is most distant (aphelion).

On the autumn equinox, day and night are of roughly equal length and the nights will become increasingly longer than the days until the spring equinox when the pattern is reversed.

It also marks the time of year when the northern hemisphere begins to tilt away from the sun resulting in less direct sunlight and consequently the cooling temperatures.