Fall officially begins early Friday morning at 4:05 am! At that brief moment the Earth's axis is not pointing toward the sun or away from the sun. The term "equinox" translates to "equal night." On this day everywhere on Earth will have 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness! However, if you look up the sunrise and sunset times for the QC on Friday you'll find the sunrise is at 6:50 am and the sunset is at 6:58 pm! One of the reasons for this is the fact that "sunrise" here in the Quad Cities is based on when you can see the tip of the sun coming up above the horizon (conversely "sunset" is when the full sun has gone down below the horizon.) It takes a few minutes for the sun to fully rise and fully set and this is the main reason the daylight doesn't add up exactly to 12 hours! For a little more feel free to check out this site:
http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/september-equinox.html
http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/september-equinox.html
They've got all you need to know about Friday's Autumnal equinox!
(Picture courtesy of website mentioned)
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