Of the 4 cross-quarter days - days that fall midway between equinoxes and solstices - Halloween is the spookiest. It comes as days grow short and nights long in the Northern Hemisphere.
The northern star Arcturus sets about 2 hours after sunset now, at the same point on the horizon as the summer sun. It provides an echo of long summertime afternoons.
When your camera stays fixed as the stars move throughout the night, you get a photo of what are called star trails. Then ... just add pumpkins. Gowrishankar Lakshminarayanan at Haines Falls, New York talks about his photo, here.
Elena Gissi in northern Italy sent this photo of Sunday's sunset. She's about 60 miles (100 km) from the site of still-raging wildfires. Click in for another photo, taken from not far away on the same evening.
