Equinox hours5/11/2023 ![]() It’s fun to collect some of the fall leaves and use them in craft projects or to learn which kinds of trees they fell from. The trees are changing colors, their leaves turning from green to beautiful shades of gold, red, and yellow. Let’s now get to the fun part.īecause the autumnal equinox marks the beginning of fall, there are many special activities that take place around that day. This year the spring equinox was on March 20 and the fall equinox will be on September 23.Įnough of all that. The one in March marks the beginning of spring and the one in September marks the beginning of fall or autumn.īecause of leap years and some other factors, the exact dates and times of the two equinoxes may vary a little bit. The one in September is called the fall or autumnal equinox (aw-TUM-nal). For now, though, just know that in March, there is a day of equal day and night, and in September, there is another day of equal day and night.įor us, the equinox in March is called the spring or vernal equinox. You will study it in a science class and there will be pictures and videos to make it clear. And when it’s winter here (because we are tilted away from the sun, so getting less direct sunlight), it’s summer in those places (because they are tilted up and get more direct sunlight.) That’s why when it’s summer for us here, it’s winter for people in South America, Australia, and other places far south. If a basketball leaned like that, it would fall off the finger! The Earth, of course, doesn’t fall off anything, it just spins at that odd angle.īecause of this, during part of the year the northern area of the Earth is leaning toward the sun and the bottom part is leaning away.īut when the Earth travels half-way around the sun, the northern part is then leaning away and gets less direct sunlight, and the southern part is tilted up and gets more sun. It is leaning over about one quarter of the way. The Earth spins like a basketball, but it is not straight up and down. The point at the very top of the spin is directly over the person’s finger. The basketball is not leaning to one side or the other, it is straight up and down. To understand equinoxes and why they happen, picture a basketball spinning on someone’s finger. Sort of rhymes with see the foxes.)Įquinoxes are the same in the upper half of the earth and the lower half (called hemispheres.) So days when daylight and darkness are the same happen where we live as well as where people far down in South America live. One is in March and the other in September. At higher latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, the date of equal day and night occurs before the March equinox and daytime continues to be longer than nighttime until after a few days after the September equinox.There are two days each year when day and night are the same length. Therefore, on the equinox and for several days before and after the equinox, the length of day will range from about 12 hours and six minutes at the equator to 12 hours and 8 minutes at 30 degrees latitude to 12 hours and 16 minutes at 60 degrees latitude.įor observers within a couple of degrees of the equator, the period from sunrise to sunset is always several minutes longer than the night. Additionally, the days become a little longer at the higher latitudes (where we live) because it takes the sun longer to rise and set. The "nearly" equal hours of day and night are due to the refraction of sunlight or bending of the light's rays that causes the sun to appear above the horizon when the actual position of the sun is below the horizon. ![]() The word equinox is derived from two Latin words - aequus (equal) and nox (night).Īt the equator, the sun is directly overhead at noon on these two equinoxes. ![]() These events are referred to as Equinoxes. There are only two times of the year when the Earth's axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun, resulting in a "nearly" equal amount of daylight and darkness at all latitudes. Why is there not equal daylight and nighttime on the equinoxes?
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