Spring Arrives with Equinox Tuesday, Earliest in More Than a Century

[xchrom]

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=spring-arrives-with-equinox-tuesday-earliest-in-century

Across much of the United States, this has been an unusually mild winter, especially for those living east of the Mississippi. Not a few people have noted that spring seems to have come early this year. Of course, in a meteorological sense that could be true, but in 2012 it will also be true in an astronomical sense as well, because this year spring will make its earliest arrival since the late 19th century: 1896, to be exact.

The vernal equinox — the first day of spring — will arrive tomorrow (March 20) at 05:14 Universal Time, or 1:14 a.m. EDT. Even more intriguing is that for those in the Mountain and Pacific Time zones, the equinox will actually arrive tonight (March 19).

Astronomers define an equinox as that moment when the sun arrives at one of two intersection points of the ecliptic (the sun's path across the sky) and the celestial equator (Earth's equator projected onto the sky). One such intersection point is located in western Virgo; the sun arrives there on Sept. 22 or 23, and appears to cross the equator from north to south, marking the beginning of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere.

The other intersection point, in eastern Pisces, is where the sun will be tomorrow. The sun is now migrating north of the equator, hence this is the "vernal" or spring equinox. At 5:14 UT next Tuesday, the sun will be shining directly over the equator from the point of view of a spot in the Indian Ocean, 757 miles (1,218 km) southeast of Colombo, Sri Lanka. [Earth's Equinoxes & Solstices (Infographic)]

[Owlet]

1. How interesting! Thanks for posting. (eom)

[xchrom]

2. Sure. Nt

[RobertEarl]

3. The sun is not doing anything

It is the earth wobbling around, making it look like the sun is doing something,

Know what I mean, Vern?

[RobertEarl]

5. Incline is presently 0

The sun does not rise - the earth rotates and wobbles on its axis making it look to some people like the sun is moving.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. It's not a 'wobble' of the axis - the axis always points to the pole star

At this time of year, the line from the sun to the earth is at right angles to the earth's axis. By the time of midsummer (summer solstice), the axis will still be in exactly the same direction, but the line from the sun to the earth will then be in the same plane as it.

(With Tesha's caveat, that is. There is a 'wobble' over thousands of years.)

[Bosso 63]

10. The Sun goes around the Earth!

The U.S. to be more precise.

U.S.A. ! U.S.A. ! U.S.A. !

[JHB]

13. It's a matter of perspective

[JHB]

8. This is just pandering by Obama: "I brought spring early"

Of course a radical socialist rag like SA parrots it slavishly. They don't report lies like this on FOX!















(they report different sorts of lies on FOX. The actual lie sorts of lies)

[Major Hogwash]

9. Hahahaha!!! That's a DUzy for sure!

I love it, anything that happens, they blame it on Obama.

It snowed in Arizona -- it's Obama's fault.
The wind blew hard in Texas -- it's Obama's fault.
Michelle Obama went on Letterman's program on Monday night -- it's Obama's fault.

[Robb]

11. Nice. Although my first thought was similar.

Only it was "Expect to see this trotted out as evidence against warming trends."

[JHB]

12. "AWG Hoaxers change calendar date to claim 'early spring' "

"Everyone knows spring starts on March 21. Now, in order to claim it "came early", the grant-grubbers resort to rewriting the date to support their 'facts'."