It’s hard to believe that it’s six months since winter began and we left the coast at Crown Bay, but the arrival of the equinox today, 22nd September, leaves us with no doubt. The event actually occurs at 20.44 GMT and at that moment, as the earth moves in its orbit around the sun, it reaches the point at which, due to the tilted axis of the earth, the sun crosses the equator. It marks the changing of the seasons where the northern hemisphere enters autumn and the southern enters spring. Like the solstices, it’s one of the major seasonal celestial events.

There are two interesting things that happen on this day ;

  1. Everywhere on Earth the length of the day is the same. The exception to this is at the Poles.
  2. At the South Pole the sun rises for the first time since it set on the equinox back on 20th March and it will not set again for another six months. The opposite will be true at the North Pole.

 

For us, it marks the real end of winter and there is more than a tinge of regret since, by this day, we had hoped to have crossed the continent.

That was not to be, but the winter is over.

 

Equinox

During an equinox, the Earth is not tilted toward or away from the Sun and the length of the day is the same at all points on the Earth’s surface