Here’s the sky on this first evening of northern spring.
See the end note about enlarging illustrations.
It looks crowded, but that’s because I’ve drawn it at half the scale I usually use, so as to show a wide span. Over on the left (southeast) is the anti-Sun. It has arrived at the point where the ecliptic crosses southward through the celestial equator – the Sun being at the opposite point, entering the northern half of the sky. Over on the right (west), the stars are following the Sun down.
There is indeed a crowd of activity around 90° from the Sun, in the Taurus-Gemini area. Here is the summer solstice point, northernmost point of the ecliptic, where the Sun will arrive in June. Almost (but not quite) coinciding with that is Earth’s antapex, the point away from which we are now flying in our orbit.
And the Moon is near here, because it will be at First Quarter (90° from the Sun) on March 21 (about 15h Universal Time). It passed about 2° south of Mars on March 19. The Moon slid northward across the ecliptic today at 4 UT (later as seen from the northern hemisphere).
The exact moment of the equinox was 9:40 Universal Time (4 or more hours earlier by American clocks).
Go to our page about seasons for more clarification and illustrations of what the equinox means.
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ILLUSTRATIONS in these posts are made with precision but have to be inserted in another format. You may be able to enlarge them on your monitor. One way: right-click, and choose “View image”, then enlarge. Or choose “Copy image”, then put it on your desktop, then open it. On an iPad or phone, use the finger gesture that enlarges (spreading with two fingers, or tapping and dragging with three fingers). Other methods have been suggested, such as dragging the image to the desktop and opening it in other ways.
Sometimes I make improvements or corrections to a post after publishing it. If you click on the title, rather than on ‘Read more’, I think you are sure to see the latest version.
This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun.
I remember your Astro Companion said the sun sets due west on the equinox. I was driving on a road that goes straight east / west. The setting sun was quite large since the road gave me a clear view of the west horizon. But then it set a tad north of the road. I assumed that was due to refraction.
Yes, the sun you were seeing was the sun a few moments after it had set at the geometric horizon.
Thanks for the post; Happy March Equinox!
Up here in north east England we had both the Sun and the Moon in the skies on the day of the Equinox but a bit later than the actual time,0937 UTC which should be 0837 English Winter Time,as I didn’t get up until about 1145!got some photos of both the Sun and the Moon.the Sun using 1000 Oaks Solar Film.i find the 1000 Oaks too stiff and inflexible so will probably go back to the Baader which is less durable?plus with the 1000 Oaks I got a political message with my Solar Film about Israel (pro Israeli) although the film seems to originate in the USA,and there I was thinking solar photography might be beyond earthly politics!
“The exact moment of the equinox was 9:40 Universal Time (5 or more hours earlier by American clocks).” Make that 4 or more hours earlier. Eastern Standard Time is 5 hours behind UT, but Eastern Daylight Time, which is what I’m on now in the Eastern Time Zone, is 4 hours behind UT. (%&@$+#! DST!)
Right! Correction made. The damned clock-screwing bugbear again.