Autumn Equinox – or is it Equilux?
The Autumn Equinox is here. An equinox occurs twice a year, once in spring and once in autumn when the tilt of the Earth’s axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun. This means that the number of daylight hours is the same as the number of darkness hours – 12 hours each.
Actually, the equninox occurs as a specific point during the day rather than being a whole day. So, although the word equinox is often understood to mean “equal day and night,” this isn’t strictly true as it really refers to a specific point in time during the two days of the year when the length of day and night are closest to being equal. Those days are actually equiluxes, not equinoxes . Equiluxes are the days where sunrise and sunset are closest to being exactly 12 hours apart so today is the Autumn Equilux.
Enough with the Pedantics, Sunrise today was at 7:03am, sunset is at 7:12pm – That is of course if we see the sun. The equinox actually occurred at 4:10 this morning. So, from now on it’s longer night than days, not something many people look forward to, but I quite like it.
I like the cosy feeling of sitting in the house while it’s dark outside, there’s Hallowe’en and Bonfire Night to look forward to and of course Christmas (and my birthday) is on its way. And by the time that’s over with, the days are getting longer and spring is on its way. Don’t get down-hearted, there’s little you can do about it so embrace the winter!
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If sunrise was 7:03am and sunset was 7:12pm, obviously the day was 9 minutes longer than 12 hours, suggesting that equilux, as you have defined it, is probably a few days later.
You’ve got a good point there Lee, I shall have to look into it!
Looking at my tide timetables, it looks as though sunrise on Sept 25th was at 7:07 and sunset at 7:08, so that must have been the autumn Equilux.
Al.