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Every year we hear about the equinox -- twice a year, actually, in September and March. As a matter of fact, the Autumnal Equinox just passed a few weeks ago. But what is it, and why do we care about it? When we did a Yahoo! search on "equinox," the first category turned out to be exactly what we were looking for. From the category page, we clicked on the first site, simply titled Equinox. We didn't have to look too long to find the information. The term "equinox" originally referred to the two times of year when night and day are the same length. However, the modern definition is more precise -- the equinoxes are measured as the instant at which the center of the Sun crosses declination 0. According to The Equinox, "Every place on earth experiences a 12-hour day twice a year on the Spring and Fall Equinox." If you're interested in the Sun's path during the equinox, check out the simple yet informative diagrams on the site. We also found Wrinkle 2: A Global Moment in Time. More than 140 artists around the world have created a site that allows you to relive the 1998 Vernal Equinox. By setting up tripods and cameras at different locations around the globe, they've collaborated to synchronize a moment of earth time. A truly ambitious effort.
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