September Stars

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Across
  1. 2. When the Moon or a planet appears especially close either to another planet or to a bright star
  2. 3. The changing illumination of the Moon (or other body) over time this term means the illumination is increasing
  3. 4. The moment when a celestial object crosses the meridian and is thus at its highest above the horizon.
  4. 6. The two times each year, around June 20th and December 21st, when the Sun is farthest north or south in the sky
  5. 11. When the Moon or other body appears more than half, but not fully, illuminated
  6. 13. The time after sunset or before sunrise when the sky is not fully dark
  7. 15. a “dirty snowball” of ice and rocky debris, typically a few miles across, that orbits the Sun in a long ellipse. When close to the Sun, the warmth evaporates the ice in the nucleus to form a coma (cloud of gas) and a tail
  8. 16. The two times each year, near March 20th and September 22nd, when the Sun is directly overhead at noon as seen from Earth’s equator
  9. 17. A star ending its life in a huge explosion
  10. 18. When an object moves in the reverse sense of “normal” motion
Down
  1. 1. The changing illumination of the Moon (or other body) over time; this term means the illumination is lessening
  2. 2. A distinctive pattern of stars used informally to organize a part of the sky
  3. 5. A brief streak of light caused by a small piece of solid matter entering Earth’s atmosphere at tremendous speed
  4. 7. Sunlight reflected by Earth that makes the otherwise dark part of the Moon glow faintly
  5. 8. An event that occurs when the shadow of a planet or moon falls upon a second body.
  6. 9. Greek for “circle of animals.” It’s the set of constellations situated along the ecliptic in the sky, through which the Sun, Moon, and planets move
  7. 10. A solid body orbiting the Sun that consists of metal and rock
  8. 11. A vast collection of stars, gas, and dust, typically 10,000 to 100,000 light-years in diameter and containing billions of stars
  9. 12. The fraction of the Moon or other body that we see illuminated by sunligh
  10. 14. A plot of the number of pixels in an image at each brightness level