A Well Timed Final

         Oh dear it's almost time! Finals are so close I am starting to stress if I have a blue book or not. Then again in these upper div classes we rarely need one. Ok ramble done. So I don't know how many of you have noticed but the scheduling of our Astro final is the ......VERNAL EQUINOX! I think that this is an omen that we are all going to pass! 
         But what is the VERNAL EQUINOX? So if we think about to the very first weeks of class, and believe me I know how hard this can be, it is when the tilt of the Earth's axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun. Therefore the center of the Sun is in the same plane as the Earth's equator. What does that look like:

This equinox was meant to mean equal day that night but this is not always the case for everyone on Earth. Today the convention means that there is roughly 12 hours between sunrise and sunset. But how did all this madness get started? Well back in the day the Conqueror and Popes had a lot of control of the worlds  calendar. The first time the date was assigned was 45 BC by Julius Caesar and the date he chose was March 25th. Later it was shifted to March 21st by Pope Gregory XIII to create his modern Gregorian calendar. This time he was not swayed by a Emperor but to restore the edicts about the date of Easter of the Council of Nicaea of AD 325. 


FUN FACT:
The date at which sunset and sunrise becomes exactly 12 hours apart is known as the equilux. Because sunset and sunrise times vary with an observer's geographic location (longitude and latitude), the equilux(I searched equilux and this came up) likewise depends on location and does not exist for locations sufficiently close to the Equator. The equinox, however, is a precise moment in time which is common to all observers on Earth. 


In pursuit of humor I looked for a cartoon for the spring equinox and this is the best that was out there: