The night began to win more and more hours a day – Express

Leaves: we will start seeing them on the floor

It was 9:20 a.m. this morning of September 23, when it gave the instant the sun midpoint passed the equator, marking the beginning of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. But today is not the number of hours of the day is equal to night, as indicated by the Latin origin of the equinox word – aequinoctium, which means same night . Today the day will have more eight minutes of light from darkness. Only on Saturday is the day hours and night hours are going to be equal, with the sun rising at 7:29 a.m. and put yourself at 19h28, with only 10 seconds of deviation.

It is certain that the equinox happened on Wednesday morning because it was on this day that “took the moment when the sun’s center point passes the equator and therefore the solar center rises in the cardinal point East and sets exactly in the west , lying for 12 hours over the mathematical horizon anywhere on Earth, “explains the Express Rui Agostinho, director of the Astronomical Observatory of Lisbon (see more at www.oal.ul .pt)

The fall will keep for three months -. or, to be more specific 89.81 days – and in this period, the evening will gaining more and more hours a day until the winter solstice on 22 December. Interestingly, says Rui Godinho, when we return to have next fall equinox in 2016, “the earth still have not finished traveling around the sun and will miss 20 minutes to complete it.”

In these things the stars and the cosmos, these “delays” are not felt by the inhabitants of the planet. According to the director of the Observatory, “every year, when you start a season, the earth is not in the same position as last year.” But none of this is felt by humans: “The secular and millennial variations are slow more to be felt by people or make a dent.” Only the changes of day and night and of the seasons are noted. But these neither by all. “The change of seasons is felt by inhabiting the temperate regions of the planet, who are a minority,” recalls Rui Agostinho. For those who live in the Ecuadorian area or the north and south poles, only summer or winter marked difference.

With the arrival of autumn, still does not change the time. The hit of the watches takes place only on the last Sunday in October, as always since 1996. By 1:00 a.m. on 25 October, the clocks delayed 60 minutes to allow the globalized world all get right.