03/20/2017 – Ephemeris – Spring starts today!

Ephemeris for Monday, March 20th.  The Sun will rise at 7:45.  It’ll be up for 12 hours and 10 minutes, setting at 7:55.  The Moon, at last quarter today, will rise at 3:39 tomorrow morning.

This morning, at 6:29 (10:29 UT) the sun crosses overhead at the earth’s equator as it appears to head north, starting for us the season of spring.  It’s the vernal equinox.  As you can tell from my intro, we’re already above 12 hours of daylight, and we’ll add another 3 plus hours of daylight before summer begins in three months.  We are already adding about 3 minutes a day of daylight to that goal now, the maximum rate.  With the Sun out longer and its ascension higher in the sky each day, it is rapidly adding energy to the northern hemisphere.  We don’t feel that immediately.  While the land rapidly absorbs heat, the oceans and lakes, especially the Great Lakes are a big heat sink, taking a very long time to warm up.

Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

This March equinox also is the beginning of autumn for folks south of the equator.

Image from the DISCOVR satellite in halo orbit at the Earth-Sun L1 point, nearly a million miles (1.6 million km) sunward of the Earth. as of March 17, 2017. As usual Michigan is covered by a cloud.  Credit NOAA/NASA.