“In like a lion, out like a lamb,” or so some would have you think. March is a transition month, and so, is prone to extremes. It’s a pretty good month, though, as months go, unless you happened to be Julius Caesar. Turns out he wasn’t the only one who had to beware of the Ides of March, as that date was also the time that Romans were supposed to settle their debts. In the U.S., we have the same feeling about the Ides of April. Ten forty, good buddy.
Not only do the seasons change in March, but the clocks do too. For reasons known only to Congress, the U.S. decided to get a jump on the Daylight Savings Time (DST) bandwagon a few years ago and moved “the change” up to the second Sunday in March. This year, that is on March 13. As a result, folks may still will be groggy on the Ides of March. Beware.
Turning to astronomy, that of course, is what gives rise to the change of season from winter to spring, which saunters into town on March 20. This coincides with what we refer to as the equinox. Equinoxes separate winter from spring and summer from fall. Solstices are the boundaries between spring and summer and fall and winter.
Equinoxes and solstices are very different things. At a summer solstice, the pole gets its closest vantage point of the sun. For the northern hemisphere, this involves the North Pole and is in June, the end of spring and beginning of summer. At a winter solstice, the same pole is pointed farthest away from the sun (since the other pole at its summer solstice) and that, of course, occurs in December in the Northern Hemisphere. Equinoxes are the points halfway between the solstices and during them the two poles are exactly the same distance from the sun – neither is favored. An interesting thing occurs at that point and no, I’m not referring to balancing eggs, which is an urban legend that needs to die. Rather, on the day of the equinox, all places on Earth have 12 hours of sunshine and 12 hours of darkness.
Astronomy isn’t all about us, though as there are plenty of events that have nothing to do with Earth, but we do get to watch them, making astronomy one of the best, oldest, and most widely viewed spectator sports – probably because the admission price is so low. You can celebrate National Irish-American Heritage month, Women’s History Month, Celery Month, Kidney Month, Noodle Month, Frozen Food Month, and Cheerleading Safety Month. Go team!
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