I've been studying the facts and figures on my new website woodford wells
weather this morning and have noticed that sunrise today 06.05 and sunset is
18.12.ie a difference of 12 hours 7 minutes.
If the equinox is not until the 21st, how come ?
As ever,prepared to put my head above the parapet,

Yours truly

RonB

"ronaldbutton" wrote :

I've been studying the facts and figures on my new website woodford wells
weather this morning and have noticed that sunrise today 06.05 and sunset
is 18.12.ie a difference of 12 hours 7 minutes.
If the equinox is not until the 21st, how come ?
As ever,prepared to put my head above the parapet,

Refraction, Ron. You know that when you put a knife half in
and half out of a glass of water the knife looks as though it's bent
at the boundary of the air and the water. Same thing happens in
the atmosphere. At sunrise you see the sun a few minutes
before it's actually there ( and the opposite at sunset). No doubt
others can be more specific, but in our latitude it adds about
3 or 4 minutes to the time we can see the sun at both sunrise
and sunset. It also means that, horizons permitting, at the
two equinoxes the sun is above the horizon -- just -- for 24 hours
at both the North and South Poles.

Philip

On Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:54:40 -0000, Philip Eden wrote:

is 18.12.ie a difference of 12 hours 7 minutes. If the equinox is not
until the 21st, how come ?

Refraction, Ron. You know that when you put a knife half in
and half out of a glass of water the knife looks as though it's bent
at the boundary of the air and the water. Same thing happens in
the atmosphere.

Is it purely that? I had an idea that it was to do with ones latitude and
the way the curved terminator of the sun light moves across the spherical
surface of the earth. "Equation of time" is the thing to plug into google,
I must do that sometime and try and get my head around what is going on
with the equinox, day lengths and when sunrise/sunset happen.

--
Cheers
Dave.

Alex Deakin on BBC this morning commented that the nights are still
longer than the days. Wrong! - as alluded to in this thread.

Slightly off topic. Planet Venus is at inferior conjunction (between
Earth and Sun) on 27th March but due to orbital tilt, actually passes
not directly in line but some 8 degrees north of the sun. For a few
days around that date, it will be both a morning AND an evening
"star". Now wouldn't that have confused the ancients who, so it is
said, never realised that Hesperus and Vesperus were one and the same
object?

Jack

"Equation of time" is the thing to plug into google,
I must do that sometime and try and get my head around what is going on
with the equinox, day lengths and when sunrise/sunset happen.

"Equation of time" has NOTHING to do with refraction but is a result
of the ellipticity of the Earth's orbit.

Jack

On Mar 19, 11:40*am, "Jack )"
wrote:
"Equation of time" is the thing to plug into google,
I must do that sometime and try and get my head around what is going on
with the equinox, day lengths and when sunrise/sunset happen.

"Equation of time" has NOTHING to do with refraction but is a result
of the ellipticity of the Earth's orbit.

Jack

And the tilt of the earth's axis. The two effects are about
equal but the axial tilt effect has a period of 6 months whereas the
eccentricity effect has a period of one year.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey.

On Mar 19, 11:04*am, "Jack )"
wrote:
Alex Deakin on BBC this morning commented that the nights are still
longer than the days. *Wrong! - as alluded to in this thread.

Slightly off topic. *Planet Venus is at inferior conjunction (between
Earth and Sun) on 27th March but due to orbital tilt, actually passes
not directly in line but some 8 degrees north of the sun. *For a few
days around that date, it will be both a morning AND an evening
"star". *Now wouldn't that have confused the ancients who, so it is
said, never realised that Hesperus and Vesperus were one and the same
object?

Jack

I have been watching Venus in the evening sky with 12X40
binoculars. It's best seen against as bright a sky as possible
consistent with being able to find it otherwise it is so bright as to
dazzle. It is now a very thin crescent with the horns pointing
vertically and is directly above the sun by about 17° (today),
decreasing by the day.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey.

"ronaldbutton" wrote in message
...
I've been studying the facts and figures on my new website woodford wells
weather this morning and have noticed that sunrise today 06.05 and sunset
is 18.12.ie a difference of 12 hours 7 minutes.
If the equinox is not until the 21st, how come ?
As ever,prepared to put my head above the parapet,

Yours truly

RonB

Ron

Why do you think that the equinox is on the 21st?

Roger

Cos my Nan always said it was...smartypants

RonB
"Roger Smith" wrote in message
...

"ronaldbutton" wrote in message
...
I've been studying the facts and figures on my new website woodford wells
weather this morning and have noticed that sunrise today 06.05 and sunset
is 18.12.ie a difference of 12 hours 7 minutes.
If the equinox is not until the 21st, how come ?
As ever,prepared to put my head above the parapet,

Yours truly

RonB

Ron

Why do you think that the equinox is on the 21st?

Roger

From Heavens-Above

http://www.heavens-above.com

Spring equinox 11:43, 20 March

Jack