‘Spring has come with flowers fair,
Zephyrs rare,
And the joy that
knows no care.’
Today is the
Vernal Equinox at exactly 9:57am PDT.
ver·nal/ˈvɜrnl/
adjective
1. of or pertaining to spring: vernal sunshine.
2. appearing or occurring in spring: vernal migratory
movements.
3. appropriate to or suggesting spring; springlike:
vernal greenery.
4. belonging to or characteristic of youth: vernal
longings.
"On the day of the equinox, the center of the Sun spends a roughly equal
amount of time above and below the horizon at every location on the Earth, so
night and day are about the same length. The word equinox derives from
the Latin words aequus (equal) and nox (night). In reality, the
day is longer than the night at an equinox. Day is usually defined as the period
when sunlight reaches the ground in the absence of local obstacles. From the
Earth, the Sun appears as a disc rather than a point of light, so when the
center of the Sun is below the horizon, its upper edge is visible. Furthermore,
the atmosphere refracts light, so even when the upper limb of the Sun is 0.4-degree below the horizon,
its rays curve over the horizon to the ground. In sunrise/sunset tables, the
assumed semidiameter (apparent radius)
of the Sun is 16 minutes of
arc and the atmospheric refraction is assumed to be
34 minutes of arc. Their combination means that when the upper limb of Sun is on
the visible horizon, its center is 50 minutes of arc below the geometric
horizon, which is the intersection with the celestial sphere of a horizontal
plane through the eye of the observer. These effects make the day about 14
minutes longer than the night at the Equator and longer still towards the Poles.
The real equality of day and night only happens in places far enough from the
Equator to have a seasonal difference in day length of at least 7 minutes,
actually occurring a few days towards the winter side of each equinox."-Wikipedia
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