Equinox

This article is about the astronomical event when the sun

is at zenith over the Equator. For other uses, see Equinox
(disambiguation).
For the same event happening on other planets and
setting up a celestial coordinate system, see Equinox
(celestial coordinates).
An equinox occurs twice a year, around 20 March and
22 September. The word itself has several related denitions. The oldest meaning is the day when daytime and
night are of approximately equal duration.[2] The word
equinox comes from this denition, derived from the
Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night). The equinox is not
exactly the same as the day when period of daytime and
night are of equal length for two reasons. Firstly, sunrise,
which begins daytime, occurs when the top of the Sun's
disk rises above the eastern horizon. At that instant, the
disks center is still below the horizon. Secondly, Earths
atmosphere refracts sunlight. As a result, an observer sees
daylight before the rst glimpse of the Suns disk above
the horizon. To avoid this ambiguity, the word equilux is
sometimes used to mean a day on which the periods of
daylight and night are equal.[3][note 1] Times of sunset and
sunrise vary with an observers location (longitude and
latitude), so the dates when day and night are of exactly
equal length likewise depend on location.

During an equinox, the Earth's North and South poles are not
tilted toward or away from the Sun, and the duration of daylight
is theoretically the same at all points on Earths surface.

The equinoxes are the only times when the solar terminator is perpendicular to the Equator. As a result,
the Northern and Southern Hemispheres are illuminated
equally.

1 Equinoxes on the Earth

Illumination of Earth by the Sun at the March
equinox

The other denitions are based on several related

simultaneous astronomical events, and refer either to the
events themselves or to the days on which they occur.
These events are the reason that the period of daytime and
night are approximately equal on the day of an equinox.

The Earth in its orbit around the Sun causes the Sun
to appear on the celestial sphere moving over the
ecliptic (red), which is tilted on the Equator (white)

Diagram of the Earths seasons as seen from the

An equinox occurs when the plane of Earths Equator
north. Far right: December solstice.
passes the center of the Sun. At that instant, the tilt of
Earths axis neither inclines away from nor towards the
Diagram of the Earths seasons as seen from the
Sun. The two annual equinoxes are the only times when
south. Far left: June solstice.
the subsolar pointthe place on Earths surface where
the center of the Sun is exactly overheadis on the Equator, and, conversely, the Sun is at zenith over the Equator. 1.1 Date
The subsolar point crosses the equator, moving northward
at the March equinox and southward at the September When Julius Caesar established his calendar in 45 BC he
set 25 March as the spring equinox. Because a Julian year
equinox.
(365.25 days) is slightly longer than an actual year the
At an equinox, the Sun is at one of the two opposite points
calendar drifted with respect to the equinox, such that the
on the celestial sphere where the celestial equator (i.e.
equinox was occurring on about 21 March in AD 300 and
declination 0) and ecliptic intersect. These points of inby AD 1500 it had reached 11 March.
tersection are called equinoctial points: classically, the
h
m
s
vernal point (RA = 00 00 00 and longitude = 0) and This drift induced Pope Gregory XIII to create a modthe autumnal point (RA = 12h 00m 00s and longitude = ern Gregorian calendar. The Pope wanted to restore the
edicts concerning the date of Easter of the Council of
180).
Nicaea of AD 325. So the shift in the date of the equinox
1

1 EQUINOXES ON THE EARTH

that occurred between the 4th and the 16th centuries was
annulled with the Gregorian calendar, but nothing was
done for the rst four centuries of the Julian calendar.
The days of 29 February of the years AD 100, AD 200,
AD 300, and the day created by the irregular application
of leap years between the assassination of Caesar and the
decree of Augustus re-arranging the calendar in AD 8, 1.3
remained in eect. This moved the equinox four days
earlier than in Caesars time.

Virgo. In sidereal astrology (notably Hindu astrology), by contrast, the rst point of Aries remains
aligned with Ras Hammel the head of the ram, i.e.
the Aries constellation.

90 N

Length of equinoctial day and night

Vernal (North) /
Autumnal (South) equinox
Jan
Feb
Mar

80 N
70 N
60 N

1.2

50 N

Names

40 N
30 N

Summer (North) /
Autumnal (North) /
Winter (South) solstice
Vernal (South) equinox
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
24 hours (constant day)

1
6
8

23 hours

10

14 hours

Winter (North) /
Summer (South) solstice
Oct
Nov
Dec

1
6
8

18 hours
16 hours

10

Latitude

20 N
10 N

Vernal equinox and autumnal equinox: these

classical names are direct derivatives of Latin (ver
= spring and autumnus = autumn). These names are
based on the seasons, and can be ambiguous since
seasons of the northern hemisphere and southern
hemisphere are opposites, and the vernal equinox
of one hemisphere is the autumnal equinox of the Contour plot of the hours of daylight as a function of latitude and
other.
day of the year, showing approximately 12 hours of daylight at
0

12

12

12 hours

10 S
20 S

10 hours

14

16
18
23

8 hours

16
18
23

6 hours
1 hour

80 S

360

350

340

330

320

310

300

290

280

270

260

250

240

230

220

210

200

190

180

120

90

110

80

70

60

50

40

10

30

20

100

0 hours (constant night)

90 S

170

70 S

14

160

60 S

150

50 S

140

40 S

130

30 S

Day of non-leap year

all latitudes during the equinoxes

Spring equinox and fall equinox or autumn

equinox: these are more colloquial names based on On the day of the equinox, the center of the Sun spends a
the seasons, and are also therefore ambiguous across roughly equal amount of time above and below the horihemispheres.
zon at every location on the Earth, so night and day are
about the same length. The word equinox derives from
March equinox and September equinox: names the Latin words aequus (equal) and nox (night). In realreferring to the times of the year when such ity, the day is longer than the night at an equinox. Day
equinoxes occur. These are without the ambiguity is usually dened as the period when sunlight reaches the
as to which hemisphere is the context, but are still ground in the absence of local obstacles. From the Earth,
not universal as not all people use a solar-based cal- the Sun appears as a disc rather than a point of light, so
endar where the equinoxes occur every year in the when the center of the Sun is below the horizon, its upsame month (as they do not in the Islamic calendar per edge is visible. Furthermore, the atmosphere refracts
and Hebrew calendar, for example), and the names light, so even when the upper limb of the Sun is 0.4 deare not useful for other planets (Mars, for example), grees below the horizon, its rays curve over the horizon to
even though these planets do have seasons.
the ground. In sunrise/sunset tables, the assumed semidi Northward equinox and southward equinox: ameter (apparent radius) of the Sun is 16 minutes of arc
names referring to the apparent motion of the Sun at and the atmospheric refraction is assumed to be 34 minthe times of the equinox. The least culturally biased utes of arc. Their combination means that when the upper limb of Sun is on the visible horizon, its center is 50
terms.
minutes of arc below the geometric horizon, which is the
Vernal point and autumnal point are the points on intersection with the celestial sphere of a horizontal plane
the celestial sphere where the Sun is located on the through the eye of the observer. These eects make the
vernal equinox and autumnal equinox respectively. day about 14 minutes longer than the night at the Equator
Usually this terminology is xed for the Northern and longer still towards the Poles. The real equality of
day and night only happens in places far enough from the
hemisphere.
Equator to have a seasonal dierence in day length of at
First point (or cusp) of Aries and rst point least 7 minutes, actually occurring a few days towards the
of Libra are names formerly used by astronomers winter side of each equinox.
and now used by navigators and astrologers.
Navigational ephemeris tables record the geographic Because the Sun is a spherical (rather than a single-point)
position of the First Point of Aries as the refer- source of light, the actual crossing of the Sun over the
ence for position of navigational stars. Due to Equator takes approximately 33 hours.
the precession of the equinoxes, the astrological At the equinoxes, the rate of change for the length of
signs of the tropical zodiac where these equinoxes daylight and night-time is the greatest. At the poles, the
are located no longer correspond with the actual equinox marks the start of the transition from 24 hours
constellations once ascribed to them. The equinoxes of nighttime to 24 hours of daylight (or vice versa). Far
are currently in the constellations of Pisces and north of the Arctic Circle, at Longyearbyen, Svalbard,

1.4

Geocentric view of the astronomical seasons

Norway, there is an additional 15 minutes more daylight

every day about the time of the Spring equinox, whereas
in Singapore (which is just one degree of latitude north
of the Equator), the amount of daylight in each daytime
varies by just a few seconds.

1.4

Geocentric view of the astronomical

seasons

Main article: Geocentric view of the seasons

3
Night includes twilight. If dawn and dusk are instead considered daytime, the day would be almost
13 hours near the equator, and longer at higher latitudes.
Height of the horizon changes the days length. For
an observer atop a mountain the day is longer, while
standing in a valley will shorten the day.

1.4.1 Day arcs of the Sun

Some of the statements above can be made clearer by

picturing the day arc (i.e., the path the Sun tracks along
the celestial dome in its diurnal movement). The pictures
show this for every hour on equinox day. In addition,
some 'ghost' suns are also indicated below the horizon,
up to 18 below it; the Sun in such areas still causes twilight. The depictions presented below can be used for
both the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern HemiAlso on the day of an equinox, the Sun rises everywhere sphere. The observer is understood to be sitting near the
on Earth (except at the Poles) at about 06:00 and sets at tree on the island depicted in the middle of the ocean; the
about 18:00 (local time). These times are not exact for green arrows give cardinal directions.
several reasons:
In the half-year centered on the June solstice, the Sun
rises north of east and sets north of west, which means
longer days with shorter nights for the Northern Hemisphere and shorter days with longer nights for the Southern Hemisphere. In the half-year centered on the December solstice, the Sun rises south of east and sets south of
west and the durations of day and night are reversed.

The Sun is much larger in diameter than the Earth,

so that more than half of the Earth could be in sunlight at any one time (due to unparallel rays creating
tangent points beyond an equal-day-night line).

In the Northern Hemisphere, north is to the left, the

Sun rises in the east (far arrow), culminates in the
south (right arrow), while moving to the right and
setting in the west (near arrow).

Most places on Earth use a time zone which differs from the local solar time by minutes or even
hours. For example, if the Sun rises at 07:00 on the
equinox, it will set 12 hours later at 19:00.

In the Southern Hemisphere, south is to the left, the

Sun rises in the east (near arrow), culminates in the
north (right arrow), while moving to the left and setting in the west (far arrow).

Even people whose time zone is equal to local solar time will not see sunrise and sunset at 06:00 and The following special cases are depicted:
18:00. This is due to the variable speed of the Earth
in its orbit, and is described as the equation of time.
Day arc at 0 latitude (Equator)
It has dierent values for the March and September
The arc passes through the zenith, resulting in almost
equinoxes (+8 and 8 minutes respectively).
no shadows at high noon.
Sunrise and sunset are commonly dened for the upper limb of the solar disk, rather than its center. The
Day arc at 20 latitude
upper limb is already up for at least a minute before
The Sun culminates at 70 altitude and its path at
the center appears, and the upper limb likewise sets
sunrise and sunset occurs at a steep 70 angle to the
later than the center of the solar disk. Also, when
horizon. Twilight still lasts about one hour.
the Sun is near the horizon, atmospheric refraction
shifts its apparent position above its true position
Day arc at 50 latitude
by a little more than its own diameter. This makes
Twilight lasts almost two hours.
sunrise more than two minutes earlier and sunset an
equal amount later. These two eects combine to
Day arc at 70 latitude
make the equinox day 12 h 7 min long and the night
The Sun culminates at no more than 20 altitude and
only 11 h 53 min. Note, however, that these numits daily path at sunrise and sunset is at a shallow 20
bers are only true for the tropics. For moderate latangle to the horizon. Twilight lasts for more than
itudes, the discrepancy increases (e.g., 12 minutes
four hours; in fact, there is barely any night.
in London); and closer to the Poles it becomes very
Day arc at 90 latitude (Pole)
much larger (in terms of time). Up to about 100 km
If it were not for atmospheric refraction, the Sun
from either Pole, the Sun is up for a full 24 hours on
would be on the horizon all the time.
an equinox day.

3 SEE ALSO

1.5

Celestial coordinate systems

2 Equinoxes of other planets

The vernal equinox occurs in March, about when the Sun

crosses the celestial equator south to north.[4] The term
vernal point is used for the time of this occurrence and
for the direction in space where the Sun is seen at that
time, which is the origin of some celestial coordinate systems:
in the ecliptic coordinate system, the vernal point is
the origin of the ecliptic longitude;
in the equatorial coordinate system, the vernal point
is the origin of the right ascension.
When the planet Saturn is at equinox, its rings pick up almost no
light, as seen in this image by Cassini in 2009.

Because of the precession of the Earths axis, the position of the vernal point on the celestial sphere changes
over time, and the equatorial and the ecliptic coordinate
systems change accordingly. Thus when specifying celestial coordinates for an object, one has to specify at what
time the vernal point and the celestial equator are taken.
That reference time is called the equinox of date.[5]

Equinox is a phenomenon that can occur on any planet

with a signicant tilt to its rotational axis. Most dramatic
of these is Saturn, where the equinox places its normally
majestic ring system edge-on facing the Sun. As a result,
they are visible only as a thin line when seen from Earth.
When seen from above a view seen by humans during
The autumnal equinox is at ecliptic longitude 180 and at an equinox for the rst time from the Cassini space probe
in 2009 they receive very little sunshine, indeed more
right ascension 12h.
planetshine than light from the Sun.[7]
The upper culmination of the vernal point is considered
the start of the sidereal day for the observer. The hour This lack of sunshine occurs once every 14.7 years. It can
angle of the vernal point is, by denition, the observers last a few weeks before and after the exact equinox. The
most recent exact equinox for Saturn was on 11 August
sidereal time.
2009. Its next equinox will take place on 30 April 2024.
The same is true in western tropical astrology: the vernal equinox is the rst point (i.e. the start) of the sign One eect of equinoctial periods is the temporary disrupof Aries. In this system, it is of no signicance that the tion of communications satellites. For all geostationary
equinoxes shift over time with respect to the xed stars. satellites, there are a few days around the equinox when
the sun goes directly behind the satellite relative to Earth
Using the current ocial IAU constellation boundaries (i.e. within the beam-width of the ground-station anand taking into account the variable precession speed and tenna) for a short period each day. The Suns immense
the rotation of the ecliptic the equinoxes shift through power and broad radiation spectrum overload the Earth
the constellations as follows[6] (expressed in astronomical stations reception circuits with noise and, depending on
year numbering in which the year 0 = 1 BC, 1 = 2 BC, antenna size and other factors, temporarily disrupt or deetc.):
grade the circuit. The duration of those eects varies but
can range from a few minutes to an hour. (For a given
The March equinox passed from Taurus into Aries frequency band, a larger antenna has a narrower beamin year 1865, passed into Pisces in year 67, will width and hence experiences shorter duration Sun outpass into Aquarius in year 2597, will pass into age windows.)
Capricornus in year 4312. It passed along (but not
into) a 'corner' of Cetus on 010' distance in year
1489.
3 See also
The September equinox passed from Libra into
Virgo in year 729, will pass into Leo in year 2439.

Aphelion occurs around 5 July (see formula)

Lady Day

1.6

Cultural aspects

Nowruz

Main articles: March equinox Human culture and

September equinox Human culture

Solstice

A number of traditional spring and autumn (harvest) festivals are celebrated on the date of the equinoxes.

Sun outage a phenomenon that occurs around the

time of an equinox

Songkran

Notes

[1] This meaning of equilux is rather modern (c. 2006)

and unusual; technical references since the beginning of
the 20th century (c. 1910) use the terms equilux and
isophot to mean of equal illumination, in the context
of curves showing how intensely lighting equipment will
illuminate a surface. See for instance John William Tudor
Walsh, Textbook of Illuminating Engineering (Intermediate
Grade), I. Pitman, 1947.

References

[1] United States Naval Observatory (2010-06-10). Earths

Seasons: Equinoxes, Solstices, Perihelion, and Aphelion,
2000-2020.
[2] equinox at Oxford Dictionaries
[3] Owens, Steve (20 March 2010). Equinox, Equilux, and
Twilight Times. Dark Sky Diary (blog). Retrieved 31
December 2010.
[4] Strictly speaking, at the equinox the suns ecliptic longitude is zero. Its latitude won't be exactly zero since the
earth isn't exactly in the plane of the ecliptic. (The ecliptic is dened by the center of mass of the earth and moon
combined.)
[5] Montenbruck, Oliver; Peger, Thomas. Astronomy on the
Personal Computer. Springer-Verlag. p. 17. ISBN 0-38757700-9.
[6] J. Meeus; Mathematical Astronomical Morsels; ISBN 0943396-51-4
[7] PIA11667: The Rite of Spring. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. Retrieved 21
March 2014.

External links
Details about the Length of Day and Night at the
Equinoxes. U.S. Naval Observatory. Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command
Calculation of Length of Day (Formulas and
Graphs)
Equinoctial Points The Nuttall Encyclopdia
Table of times for Equinoxes, Solstices, Perihelion
and Aphelion in 20002020
Table of times of Spring Equinox for a thousand
years: 14522547
Gray, Meghan; Merrield, Michael. Solstice and
Equinox. Sixty Symbols. Brady Haran for the
University of Nottingham.

7 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.1

Text

Equinox Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equinox?oldid=626719796 Contributors: WojPob, Chexum, Ed Poor, XJaM, Chrislintott,

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Lee J Haywood, Wwoods, Joe Kress, Ryjaz, Python eggs, Pgan002, Andycjp, Smith9847, Beland, Oneiros, Icairns, Enisoc, B.d.mills,
Iantresman, Neutrality, Urhixidur, Quota, Trevor MacInnis, Jimaginator, Perey, Chris j wood, Discospinster, Rich Farmbrough, Dbachmann, ESkog, Andreas Herzog, RJHall, Thejackhmr, Alberto Orlandini, Spoon!, Bobo192, Robotje, Fremsley, Man vyi, HasharBot,
Jumbuck, Alansohn, MrTree, Elpincha, Arthena, Andrewpmk, Snowolf, Wtmitchell, Eddie Dealtry, Woodstone, Bookandcoee, Kitch,
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