Should we rename the equinoxes and solstices?

Question

The upcoming equinox will be the Autumnal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere and the Vernal Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere. Would it not be easier if we just called it the unambiguous September Equinox? Likewise, the names December Solstice, March Equinox, and June Solstice would eliminate ambiguity. What are your thoughts?

Answer 1

The names March equinox and September equinox are somewhat used, however, not all people on Earth use a solar based calendar where the equinoxes occur every year in the same month (Jewish calendar for example).


Other alternative names include:

-First point of Aries and first point of Libra. The disadvantage is that due to the precession of the equinoxes the astrological signs where these equinoxes are located, do not correspond any longer with the actual constellations.

-Pisces equinox and Virgo equinox. Names to indicate in which constellations the two equinoxes are currently located. These terms are not widely used.

-Northward equinox and southward equinox. Names referring to the motion of the Sun at the times of the equinoxes.

Answer 2

You act as it this was the only planet. Mars has equinoxes by the same name. Do you propose that JPL use the term "September equinox" for an event that could occur any month. It was tough enough defining "North" for planetary scientists (and the quality of that choice was up there with "dwarf planet"). Also, at some point, centuries to millennia away, the calendar will have to be redesigned. These names may not hold. It's bad enough that the ninth month is called September (sept = 7). Now you would lock it in.

Answer 3

why not?

this being said, this renaming would be mostly useful to people who often talk about equinoxes, and often interact with friends from the other hemisphere. This must be a very, very, very small percentage of the population.

most people on the planet only very rarely use the word "equinox" to start with. And then it's just within their local community, which generally doesn't span the equator (and where it does, there aren't really seasons.


So while your idea seems logical, it would cause a lot of work (changing names in various publications) and therefore generate a lot of cost, all this to hopefully benefit a minuscule part of the earth's population, while the vast majority wouldn't care at all.

Bottom-line: interesting, but quite useless i'm afraid.

Answer 4

You are right , of course. Naming them after months would be global. Except that solstices and eqinoxes , especially winter solstice and summer and autumn equinox es,have played an important role in the development of cultures , so that season-specific terms are useful. I
think the solution would be to decide what term to use depending on the context. If you telling astronomy students about the phenomena June solstice , etc., will be fine, But if you are discussing Stonehenge or similar structures in central America , surely reference to the season would be helpful.

Answer 5

The upcoming equinox is called the autumnal equinox everywhere, even though it marks the beginning of spring in the southern hemisphere. There are some bits of nomenclature that we're stuck with, even though they may be technically obsolete -- the negative charge of an electron being an obvious example.

Answer 6

Would you like to further burden an already overburdened educational system with the cost of upgrading text books in the name of ------ what?

This Pluto thing is about enough for a while.

Answer 7

I see no reason to rename them. It would be political correctness run amok! More amok that is, because political correctness is has already run amok, IMO. Next we will be calling the "mail man" the "person person".

Answer 8

I like it just how it is.