Happy Vernal Equinox!

HAPPY SPRING (Vernal) EQUINOX!!

The Vernal Equinox (Spring to you lay folk) this year is March 20th 9:24PM UTC (Universal Time). Since I live on the west coast of the North American continent, Spring will be officially here at 2:24 PDT. Of course, that only holds true if you're in the northern hemisphere. South of the equator, the Vernal Equinox is in September.

The Vernal Equinox means that there is an equal amount of day and night. It occurs when the Sun crosses the celestial equator going south to north. It’s called the “celestial” equator because it’s an imaginary line in the sky above the Earth’s equator. Imagine standing on the equator; the Sun would pass directly overhead on its way north. 

On the March equinox, the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere receive roughly equal amounts of sunlight; neither hemisphere is tilted more toward or away from the Sun than the other. Here's a helpful illustration.

Okay, now that's all clear, just what does it mean. For one thing, Spring is the marker when the growing season begins (well, sort of). If that's not something to celebrate then what is?

Humans have recognized this change in the amount of daylight and have noted that there seems to be a bit more greenery for thousands of years. Along with the Spring, these ancestors noted the changes for other seasons. Summer has the most daylight, Fall has equal amounts of day and night, Winter has really long nights (if you live above the Arctic Circle, you'll get only day (Summer) or only night (Winter).

Here’s an interesting fact: Equinoxes are the only two times each year that the Sun rises due east and sets due west for all of us on Earth! While the Sun passes overhead, the tilt of the Earth is zero relative to the Sun, which means that Earth’s axis neither points toward nor away from the Sun. (Note, however, that the Earth never orbits upright, but is always tilted on its axis by about 23.5 degrees.)