March 17, 2022

Spring Equilux - Longer Days are Coming!

We can’t be the only ones excitedly anticipating the spring equinox this Sunday - the official start of astronomical spring (yippee!)

You might already know that the term ‘equinox’ means ‘equal night’ - the point of the year when day and night are of equal length.

Well, we hate to ’spring’ this on you (sorry), but this isn’t entirely true… In actual fact, this point of equilibrium occurs a few days *before* the equinox and is called the equilux.

This is due to the way in which we measure the time from sunrise to sunset - using the centre of the sun at the horizon at both start and end of day.

Daylight hours are actually slightly longer than this due to the top edge of the sun being visible over the horizon first (plus the impact of light refraction), meaning that equal light should be celebrated approx 3 days prior to equinox.

That is today folks! Giving us all a few more opportunities to feel the balm of the sunshine on our skin and the fresh air in our hair.

Something we can look forward to getting used to, now that winter is behind us.