Does anyone know when and what the equinox is all about?

Answer 1

An equinox in astronomy is the event when the Sun can be observed to be directly above the Earth's equator, occuring around March 20 and September 23 each year. More technically, the equinox happens when the Sun is at one of two opposite points on the celestial sphere where the celestial equator and ecliptic intersect.
In practice, at the equinox, the day is longer than the night. Commonly the day is defined as the period that sunlight reaches the ground in the absence of local obstacles.

Answer 2

As the Earth travels around the Sun, the earth is tilted at a 26.5 degree tilt to the Sun. This causes the Earth to not only rotate counterclockwise in its orbit but also to tip toward and away from the Sun as the Earth completes its annual orbit of the Sun.
An equinox in astronomy is the event when the Sun can be observed to be directly above the Earth's equator, occuring around March 20 and September 23 each year. More technically, the equinox happens when the Sun is at one of two opposite points on the celestial sphere where the celestial equator and ecliptic intersect. In a wider sense, the equinoxes are the two days each year when the center of the Sun spends an equal amount of time above and below the horizon at every location on Earth. The word equinox derives from the Latin words aequus (equal) and nox (night).

In practice, at the equinox, the day is longer than the night. Commonly the day is defined as the period that sunlight reaches the ground in the absence of local obstacles. The Sun is a disc and not a single point of light, so when the center of the Sun is below the horizon, the upper edge is visible. Furthermore, the atmosphere refracts light, so even when the upper limb of the Sun is below the visible horizon, its rays reach over the horizon to the ground. In practice, when the upper limb of Sun is on the visible horizon, this limb is in reality 1 degree below it. These effects together make the day about 14 minutes longer than the night at the equator, and longer still at sites toward the poles. The real equality of day and night happens a few days towards the winter side of each equinox.

Answer 3

The equinox is the point in Earth's orbit when there is the same number of sunlit hours as nighttime hours, on the entire planet. At this time, the sun can be viewed as being directly above the equator. There are two equinoxes each year, occurring around the third weeks of March and September.

The equinoxes signal a change in seasons with the beginning of spring or vernal equinox, and the beginning of fall or autumnal equinox.

The next equinox will take place on March 21. In the Northern Hemisphere it will be the start of spring, and in the Southern Hemisphere, the start of fall.

Answer 4

Earth is tilted on its axis 23.5 deg to the plane of its orbit around the sun.

As you know, the axis always points always to the pole star. That means that in one part of the year the axis leans towards the sun (N hemisphere summer), and 6 months later on the opposite side of the sun, the axis is leaning away from the sun (S hemisphere summer).

If you get a stick and hold it so it always points to a fixed point in tjhe sky and walk around in a circle always tilting the stick to that point, you will see that the stick leans away from the centre of your circle and halfway around it leans towards the centre.

The crunch is that halfway between these two points, although it is still titlted, it is not leaning towards or away from the centre.

With the Earth, these are the Equinox points, and because both n hemsiphere and s hemisphere are equally poised to the sun, they both receive half a day sunlight and half a day night - equinox .

All other times of the year, one hemisphere will get more daylight than the other. If this is hard to picture, think of the pole. If the N hemisphere is tilted towards the sun, you can see that as the Earth revolves on its axis, the North Pole stays in the sun all day, and the south pole stays in the shadow all day. In the lower latitudes of Europe and USA, this translates into those parts staying in the sunlight more than 12 hours while their counterparts in s America and Australia have less than 12 hours daylight.

At equinox, just 2 days of the year, the whole of the world comes together and enjoys 12 hours daylight and 12 hours night.

Answer 5

Yes, it's the oxygen uptake measurement of horses, hence the term "equine oxygen", or "equinox".

Answer 6

Laffryot is indeed a laugh riot. I applaud your witty answer!

Answer 7

no...hehe sorry