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Spring Equinox 2016
Today is the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere! At 0430UT (GMT) this morning, 20 March 2016, the Earth’s axis of rotation went momentarily side-on to the Sun. For the past six months the Earth’s northern hemisphere has be angled away from the Sun, and now we’re angled towards it. Lots more info about equinoxes and equiluxes in a previous post.
As most people take delight in the lengthening daylight hours spare a thought for the amateur astronomers who, in a few weeks time, will be packing away their scopes for the summer, eagerly waiting for the darkening nights later in the year.
Autumn Equinox 2014
Today, 23 September 2014, marks the moment of the Autumn Equinox. At 0229 UT (0329 BST) the Sun will cross from the northern hemisphere sky to the southern, and we’ll begin the slow approach to the Winter Solstice on 21 December.
The equinoxes (one in spring and one in autumn) are the two instances every year when the Sun makes that crossing from north to south and vice versa, and they’re commonly thought to be the days when day and night are equal length, but they’re really not, for reasons I’ve outline before:
- Astronomers measure the timings of equinoxes, sunrises and sunsets based on the middle point of the Sun’s disk in the sky, so when you read a sunrise time it means the time that the centre of the Sun’s disk rises above the horizon. For a few minutes before that time the top of the Sun’s disk will already have risen, giving “daylight”.
- Even before this happens the sky is lit up by the Sun below the horizon, and we experience twilight. Most people would think that the sky is bright enough to call it “daytime” long before the Sun pops above the horizon, during the phase of civil twilight.
- So today, even though day and night are said to be equal on the equinox, the “daytime” (i.e the start of civil twilight) started about 0625BST in Glasgow (where I am) and will end this evening around 1950BST, giving me approx. 13.5 hours of “daylight”. (Londoners will have from about 0615 until 1930BST, or approx. 13.25 hours of “daylight”).
The day this year where I have exactly 12 hours of “daylight” (i.e. between the morning start and the evening end of civil twilight) is 11 October and this day is called the equilux. (In London the equilux falls on 12 October).
Autumn Equinox 2013
Today, 22 September 2012, marks the moment of the Autumn Equinox. At 2044 UT (2144 BST) the Sun will cross from the northern hemisphere sky to the southern, and we’ll begin the slow approach to the Winter Solstice on 21 December.
The equinoxes (one in spring and one in autumn) are the two instances every year when the Sun makes that crossing from north to south and vice versa, and they’re commonly thought to be the days when day and night are equal length, but they’re really not, for reasons I’ve outline before:
- astronomers measure the timings of equinoxes, sunrises and sunsets based on the middle point of the Sun’s disk in the sky, so when you read a sunrise time it means the time that the centre of the Sun’s disk rises above the horizon. For a few minutes before that time the top of the Sun’s disk will already have risen, giving “daylight”.
- Even before this happens the sky is lit up by the Sun below the horizon, and we experience twilight. Most people would think that the sky is bright enough to call it “daytime” long before the Sun pops above the horizon, during the phase of civil twilight.
So today, even though day and night are said to be equal on the equinox, the “daytime” (i.e the start of civil twilight) started about 0630BST in Glasgow (where I am) and will end this evening around 2000BST, giving me 13.5 hours of “daylight”. (Londoners will have from about 0615 until 1930BST, or approx. 13.25 hours of “daylight”).
The day this year where I have exactly 12 hours of “daylight” (i.e. between the morning start and the evening end of civil twilight) is 11 October and this day is called the equilux. (In London the equilux falls on 12 October).
Spring Equilux 2013
Today, Sunday 17 March 2013, it is the Spring Equilux throughout the UK (and possibly elsewhere too*) meaning that there are almost exactly 12 hours between sunrise and sunset.
Sunrise
This date differs from the Spring, or Vernal, Equinox (1102 GMT on Wednesday 20 March 2013) for a variety of reasons, which I explain in a previous post but here is a list of sunrise / sunset times for a variety of towns and cities throughout the UK:
| Town / City | Sunrise | Sunset |
| Aberdeen | 0617 | 1817 |
| Glasgow | 0627 | 1825 |
| Belfast | 0633 | 1831 |
| Newcastle | 0615 | 1815 |
| Manchester | 0618 | 1817 |
| Birmingham | 0617 | 1816 |
| Cardiff | 0622 | 1821 |
| London | 0610 | 1809 |
As you can see the time between sunrise and sunset is not exactly 12 hours everywhere but this is the day of the year when that is closest to being true everywhere*. Yesterday the sun rose a couple of minutes later and set a couple of minutes earlier, and tomorrow the sun will rise a couple of minutes earlier and set a couple of minutes later, as the days lengthen.
Also, the reason that sunrise and sunset do not occur at the same time everywhere* is due mainly to the longitude of the town; the further east a town is the earlier it sees the sun in the morning, and the earlier it loses it again at night.
So happy Equilux everyone*!
* interestingly, the equilux does not occur on the same same day for everyone, it depends on your latitude. The closer you are to the equator the earlier the date of your equilux. For example the equilux in most US cities occurred yesterday, 16 March, and in cities near the equator there is never a day with exactly twelve hours between sunrise and sunset! Take Quito, the capital city of Ecuador (latitude 0 degrees 14 minutes south) for instance. The length of day there only ever varies between 12 hours and 6 minutes long and 12 hours and 8 minutes long!
Autumn Equinox 2012
Today, 22 September 2012, marks the moment of the Autumn Equinox. At 1449 UT (1549 BST) the Sun will cross from the northern hemisphere sky to the southern, and we’ll begin the slow approach to the Winter Solstice on 21 December.
The equinoxes (one in spring and one in autumn) are the two instances every year when the Sun makes that crossing from north to south and vice versa, and they’re commonly thought to be the days when day and night are equal length, but they’re really not, for reasons I’ve outline before:
- astronomers measure the timings of equinoxes, sunrises and sunsets based on the middle point of the Sun’s disk in the sky, so when you read a sunrise time it means the time that the centre of the Sun’s disk rises above the horizon. For a few minutes before that time the top of the Sun’s disk will already have risen, giving “daylight”.
- Even before this happens the sky is lit up by the Sun below the horizon, and we experience twilight. Most people would think that the sky is bright enough to call it “daytime” long before the Sun pops above the horizon, during the phase of civil twilight.
So today, even though day and night are said to be equal on the equinox, the “daytime” (i.e the start of civil twilight) started about 0630BST in Glasgow (where I am) and will end this evening around 2000BST, giving me 13.5 hours of “daylight”. (Londoners will have from about 0615 until 1930BST, or approx. 13.25 hours of “daylight”).
The day this year where I have exactly 12 hours of “daylight” (i.e. between the morning start and the evening end of civil twilight) is 11 October and this day is called the equilux. (In London the equilux falls on 12 October).
Spring Equinox 2012
Today is the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere! At 0514UT (GMT) this morning, 20 March 2012, the Earth’s axis of rotation went momentarily side-on to the Sun. For the past six months the Earth’s northern hemisphere has be angled away from the Sun, and now we’re angled towards it. Lot’s more info about equinoxes and equiluxes in a previous post.
As most people take delight in the lengthening daylight hours spare a thought for the amateur astronomers who, in a few weeks time, will be packing away their scopes for the summer, eagerly waiting for the darkening nights later in the year.
Happy Spring Equilux 2012
Today, Saturday 17 March 2012, it is the Spring Equilux throughout the UK (and possibly elsewhere too*) meaning that there are almost exactly 12 hours between sunrise and sunset.
Sunrise
This date differs from the Spring, or Vernal, Equinox (2321 GMT on Sunday 20 March 2011) for a variety of reasons, which I explain in a previous post but here is a list of sunrise / sunset times for a variety of towns and cities throughout the UK:
| Town / City | Sunrise | Sunset |
| Aberdeen | 0617 | 1817 |
| Glasgow | 0626 | 1825 |
| Belfast | 0633 | 1832 |
| Newcastle | 0615 | 1815 |
| Manchester | 0618 | 1817 |
| Birmingham | 0617 | 1816 |
| Cardiff | 0621 | 1821 |
| London | 0610 | 1810 |
As you can see the time between sunrise and sunset is not exactly 12 hours everywhere but this is the day of the year when that is closest to being true everywhere*. Yesterday the sun rose a couple of minutes later and set a couple of minutes earlier, and tomorrow the sun will rise a couple of minutes earlier and set a couple of minutes later, as the days lengthen.
Also, the reason that sunrise and sunset does not occur at the same time everywhere* is due mainly to the longitude of the town, the further east a town is the earlier it sees the sun in the morning, and the earlier it loses it again at night.
So happy Equilux everyone*!
* interestingly, the equilux does not occur on the same same day for everyone, it depends on your latitude. The closer you are to the equator the earlier the date of your equilux. For example the equilux in most US cities occurred yesterday, 16 March, and in cities near the equator there is never a day with exactly twelve hours between sunrise and sunset! Take Quito, the capital city of Ecuador (latitude 0 degrees 14 minutes south) for instance. The length of day there only ever varies between 12 hours and 6 minutes long and 12 hours and 8 minutes long!
Easter Astronomy
Being neither Christian nor Pagan I’m not inclined to pay much heed to Easter (except of course for the days off work and the chocolate eggs) but it does present an opportunity to talk about a little astronomy. Did you know, for example, that the date of Easter changes each year, and that it depends on the phase of the Moon?
The Venerable Bede
The Venerable Bede, a Northumbrian Monk, wrote, in his book “The Reckoning of Time” (725CE):
“The Sunday following the full Moon which falls on or after the [Spring] equinox will give the lawful Easter”
So that all seems fairly straight forward: wait till the Spring Equinox; wait till the next full Moon; wait till the next Sunday; and voila, Easter.
However complications arise because:
(a) the ecclesiastical date of the Spring Equinox does not always match the astronomical date; and
(b) the ecclesiastical date of the Full Moon does not always match the astronomical date.
Why is this?
Put simply the ecclesiastical Spring Equinox always falls on 21 March, whereas the astronomical Spring Equinox, that is the point in the year when the Sun passes from the southern to the northern celestial sphere, can occur on 19, 20 or 21 March (and occurs most often on 20 March), and so the starting date for the computation of Easter is often out.
Also the ecclesiastical date for the Full Moon takes no real account of the actual phase of the Moon, instead it refers to the 14th day of the lunar month in which the New Moon occurs between 8 March and 5 April, which can differ from the date of the Full Moon by up to three days. This is referred to as the Paschal Lunar Month, the word “Paschal” deriving from the Hebrew word for Passover, a Jewish festival commemorating the Exodus.
The table below shows how these two dates vary over the next decade, and how that effects the date of Easter.
| Year | (A) Date of Ecclesiastical Spring Equinox |
(B) Date of Astronomical Spring Equinox * |
(C) Date of Paschal Full Moon on or after A ** |
(D) Date of Astronomical Full Moon on or after B |
Date of Sunday on or after C (Easter) | Date of Sunday on or after D (Astronomical Easter) |
| 2011 | 21 March | 20 March | 18 April | 18 April | 24 April | 24 April |
| 2012 | 21 March | 20 March | 8 April | 6 April | 8 April | 8 April |
| 2013 | 21 March | 20 March | 30 March | 27 March | 31 March | 31 March |
| 2014 | 21 March | 20 March | 15 April | 15 April | 20 April | 20 April |
| 2015 | 21 March | 20 March | 4 April | 4 April | 5 April | 5 April |
| 2016 | 21 March | 20 March | 24 March | 23 March | 27 March | 27 March |
| 2017 | 21 March | 20 March | 12 April | 11 April | 16 April | 16 April |
| 2018 | 21 March | 20 March | 1 April | 31 March | 1 April | 1 April |
| 2019 | 21 March | 20 March | 19 April | 21 March | 21 April | 24 March |
| 2020 | 21 March | 20 March | 9 April | 8 April | 12 April | 12 April |
* Despite these dates being all the same, the date of the astronomical Vernal Equinox can vary between 19, 20 and 21 March, but occurs most often on 20 March. Over the next 100 years it will fall on 19 March only 4 times, and on 21 March only 20 times.
** The dates of the Lunar Months (there are 13 Lunar Months in one Solar Year) repeat on a 19 year cycle, called the Metonic Cycle. 2011 in the 17th year in that cycle; in 2014 we’re back to year 1. The dates for the Paschal New Moon can be found in calculation tables.
So you can see that, despite the fact that the Ecclesiastical Spring Equinox date doesn’t match the Astronomical Spring Equinox date on any year over the next decade (and only matches it in 20 out of the next 100 years), plus the fact that the date of the Paschal Full Moon often doesn’t match the date of the astronomical Full Moon, the dates of Easter calculated using the Ecclesiastical and the Astronomical methods only differ on one year in the next decade – 2019CE, when those who are so inclined will celebrate Easter on 21 April, but when, according to Bede, the Sunday after the full Moon after the equinox actually occurs on 24 March!
Maybe I’ve got too much time on my hands…
[Please note that throughout this post I have calculated and referred to the dates of Gregorian Easter, that celebrated by the western Christian churches. Eastern Orthodox Christians calculate Easter using the Julian calendar, which is currently 13 days ahead of the Gregorian calendar, i.e. on 21 March (the Spring Equinox) the Gregorian calendar reads 3 April.]
Happy Spring Equilux
Today, Friday 18 March 2011, it is the Spring Equilux throughout the UK (and possibly elsewhere too*) meaning that there are almost exactly 12 hours between sunrise and sunset.
Sunrise
This date differs from the Spring, or Vernal, Equinox (2321 GMT on Sunday 20 March 2011) for a variety of reasons, which I explain in a previous post but here is a list of sunrise / sunset times for a variety of towns and cities throughout the UK:
| Town / City | Sunrise | Sunset |
| Aberdeen | 0617 | 1817 |
| Glasgow | 0626 | 1826 |
| Belfast | 0632 | 1833 |
| Newcastle | 0615 | 1815 |
| Manchester | 0617 | 1818 |
| Birmingham | 0616 | 1817 |
| Cardiff | 0621 | 1822 |
| London | 0609 | 1809 |
As you can see the time between sunrise and sunset is not exactly 12 hours everywhere but this is the day of the year when that is closest to being true everywhere*. Yesterday the sun rose a couple of minutes later and set a couple of minutes earlier, and tomorrow the sun will rise a couple of minutes earlier and set a couple of minutes later, as the days lengthen.
Also, the reason that sunrise and sunset does not occur at the same time everywhere* is due mainly to the longitude of the town, the further east a town is the earlier it sees the sun in the morning, and the earlier it loses it again at night.
So happy Equilux everyone*!
* interestingly, the equilux does not occur on the same same day for everyone, it depends on your latitude. The closer you are to the equator the earlier the date of your equilux. For example the equilux in most US cities occurred yesterday, 17 March, and in cities near the equator there is never a day with exactly twelve hours between sunrise and sunset! Take Quito, the capital city of Ecuador (latitude 0 degrees 14 minutes south) for instance. The length of day there only ever varies between 12 hours and 6 minutes long and 12 hours and 8 minutes long!
Twelve hours of “daylight”
Today, throughout the UK, civil twilight began almost exactly twelve hours before it will end this evening meaning that we have, for the first time this year, twelve hours of “daylight”. Summer is on its way!
Sunset on Sark, 11 September 2010
| City | Civil Twilight Dawn | Civil Twilight Dusk |
| Glasgow | 0632 | 1828 |
| Manchester | 0622 | 1821 |
| London | 0614 | 1814 |
Of course some of this “daylight” is what we call twilight, but if you’re outside between these times you will certainly think that the sky is bright, and that the day has begun.
Technically the equinox (“equal night”) doesn’t occur this year until 20 March, with the equilux (“equal light”) occurring a few days before that (it varies around the world but in most of the UK the equilux occurs on 18 March 2011). For a detailed explanation of equinox, equilux and twilight times see my blog post from last March.
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