A diagram showing how the Sun moves through the sky on an equinox.
Click on image for full size
The Spring and Autumn Equinoxes
The spring and autumn equinoxes occur around March and September 21.
These are special points in the Earth's orbit when the Sun appears
directly above the Earth's equator. Day and night are nearly the same length,
about 12 hours.
The diagram to the left shows how the Sun may appear to move through
your sky on an equinox, if you live at a latitude of 40° N, around Topeka, Kansas for
The Sun is in between its altitude on the summer solstice (the highest
point) and its altitude on the winter solstice (the lowest point). In
a similar way, spring and autumn are in between summer and winter; the
temperatures are neither very hot nor very cold, and the weather is
not as extreme as in summer and winter.
Compare the Sun's height
to what you would see in the winter or in
Shop Windows to the Universe Science Store!
The Fall 2009 issue of The Earth Scientist
, which includes articles on student research into building design for earthquakes and a classroom lab on the composition of the Earth’s ancient atmosphere, is available in our online store
You might also be interested in:
People have been living in North America for a long, long time. The first people to live there were the Native Americans. They didn't have clocks or calendars so they watched tides, the Sun, the Moon,...more
Man has always observed the sky. By watching the Sun and Moon, early man could tell what season was coming next. They had to know this to be able to farm and hunt. Archeoastronomy started in the 1960's...more
The stones of Carnac, France, are very famous because there are a lot of them and because they are so old! The oldest stones found in Carnac are from about 4,500 B.C. That's older than the stones at Stonehenge!...more
You may have heard of the lake called Loch Ness, where people think they've seen the Loch Ness monster. Near Loch Ness there are three giant stone tombs you may not have heard of...they are called the...more
Cuzco is a city in Peru. It was the capital of the ancient Inca Empire. In ancient times, Cuzco was the center of the Inca road network which was made up of about 40,000 kilometers (25,000 miles) of roads...more
The stone rings and tombs of England and France are very famous. But, there are also stone structures in Italy. There are some neat stones in Fossa, Italy. They are standing stones. These stones form circles...more
Kepler realized that the line connecting the planet and the Sun sweeps out equal area in equal time. Look at the diagram to the left. What Kepler found is that it takes the same amount of time for the...more