What's "Up" ?

3 items of interest:​

- The Harvest Moon Saturday September 26, 2026​

The Full Moon closest to the September equinox is called the Harvest Moon. It is unique because the Moon rises close to the same time several days in a row.

By Anne Buckle, Graham Jones, and Vigdis Hocken

The Harvest Moon is the Full Moon nearest the autumnal (fall) equinox, which happens around September 22, depending on the year and time zone.
On average, the Moon rises about 50 minutes later each day. At Full Moon, it rises as the Sun sets.In the Northern Hemisphere around the Harvest Moon, however, the difference in the time of moonrise from one day to the next is less than 50 minutes.

Most years, the Harvest Moon is in September, but around every three years, it’s in October.


- or -

- Neptune is the Sun’s fourth-largest planet – four times the diameter of Earth. But it’s also the most-distant major planet – 30 times farther from the Sun than Earth is.

Neptune is closest to Earth today for the entire year. It shines at its brightest, and it’s in the sky all night.

You still need help to see it. But its location is easy to spot. As night falls, it’s about half way between the full Moon – the Harvest Moon – and the planet Saturn, which looks like a bright star to the lower left of the Moon.



Not good enough? How about humans in a can? Over a hundred miles "Up"?

- The International Space Station​

The International Space Station (ISS) can easily be spotted with the naked eye. Because of its size (110m x 100m x 30m), it reflects a large amount of sunlight.

The best time to observe the ISS is when it is nighttime at your location, and the Space Station is sunlit. Often, such a viewing situation occurs in the morning before sunrise, or in the evening after sunset.

Elon has plans to populate both Earth's moon, & planet Mars.
His big fat rocket "SpaceX Starship" isn't working quite right. BUT !
This is the rocket ship Musk intends to use for his future space adventures.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship ends flight early after first-ever orbit of Earth​

Josie Fischels Updated: Sep 28, 2026 / 12:00 PM CDT

(NewsNation) — Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship rocket ended its first orbit of Earth with a fiery landing in the Pacific Ocean just north of Hawaii Monday.

The megarocket lost one of its engines shortly after launch, though it continued to enter orbit. While no reason was given, the spacecraft’s test journey was cut much shorter than the 10-hour flight originally planned.

Starship is 407 feet tall and made up of two parts: an upper spacecraft called Ship and a giant lower rocket called Super Heavy. Super Heavy pushed the rocket upward before separating and splashing down in the Gulf of America, formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico. Ship climbed about 170 miles above Earth. One of its 33 engines cut off earlier than planned, but the ship continued to orbit without it.

SpaceX

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft.

www.spacex.com

Robert Fulton's ambitions to replace ship's sails, wind propulsion with external combustion steam engines were ridiculed, "Fulton's Folly". BUT !
Fulton eventually proved his critics wrong, and revolutionized maritime cargo transport.

Musk may eventually get his SpaceX spit together, even if the only star his "Starship" ever gets within a lightyear of is Earth's sun.