Hadley Senior Center holding tag, bake sale Saturday

HADLEY — The Hadley Senior Center is holding a tag and bake sale Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 46 Middle St.

Vendors will have assorted items for sale inside the main room, including glassware, kitchen items, books, collectibles and sports memorabilia. No furniture is being sold.

Various food items baked by community members will also be for sale.

Acclaimed pianist to play in Amherst

AMHERST — Internationally acclaimed pianist Stephen Porter will perform at South Congregational Church Sunday at 3 p.m.

Admission is free, though suggested $20 per person donations at the door are suggested. Reservations can be made by calling 413-253-2977 or sending email to office@amherstsouthchurch.org.

The concert is presented as part of South Congregational Church’s 200th Anniversary Celebration Arts and Social Justice Series.

Porter is a six-time artist resident of the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, and since 2021, has been artist in residence and research artist at Texas A&M University Central Texas.

UMass Sunwheel to hold fall equinox event

AMHERST — The public is invited to join University of Massachusetts astronomers at the standing stones of the UMass Sunwheel on Sunday at 6:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. for the fall equinox, and on Tuesday at 2:15 p.m. for the earliest setting of the moon.

From the Sunwheel, observers standing at its center will see the sun rise and set over particular stones placed to mark the equinoxes.

UMass astronomer Stephen Schneider will discuss the astronomical cause of the sun’s changing position during the approximately hour-long gatherings. He will explain why days and nights are nearly equal on the equinox (which means equi, “equal” nox, “night”) and answer other questions about astronomy.

The exact minute of the autumnal equinox this year is 8:43 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Sept. 22. This marks the moment that the sun crosses the celestial equator from north to south as seen from Earth, and ushers in the beginning of fall in the Northern Hemisphere and spring in the Southern Hemisphere. People living on the equator see the sun pass directly overhead at local noon on the equinox. Six months of daylight begin at the South Pole and six months of nighttime at the North Pole. On every day other than the equinox, either Earth’s Northern or Southern Hemisphere is tilted toward the sun.