Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Tuesday, March 20th.  The sun will rise at 7:44.  It’ll be up for 12 hours and 10 minutes, setting at 7:55.   The moon, 2 days before new, will rise at 6:54 tomorrow morning.

At 1:14 this morning the season of spring started.  The sun crossed the celestial equator heading northward.  On the day of the equinox, either today’s vernal equinox or September’s autumnal equinox the sun rises due east and sets due west.  From today until that September date the sun will rise and set north of those points.  The sun will also rise higher in the sky until the summer solstice.  The combination of longer daylight hours and it rising higher in the sky will mean more solar heat falling on the northern hemisphere of the earth and less falling on the southern.  This will give us spring and summer, and the southern hemisphere autumn and winter.  After a really screwy winter I wonder what spring and summer will bring.

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