544. Summer Stops

By the time you read this, chances are really good you have already missed it. At 5:18 PM today, September 22, 2009, our world, the Earth, crossed one of those magic markers along its annual migration around the Sun. At that point, technically the Autumnal Equinox (here in the northern hemisphere), the tilt of the Earth's orbit is neither toward nor away from the Sun, but at a point on the Earth's Equator, the center of the Sun is directly above. Hence, days get shorter; nights get longer, a process which continues until December 21.

As equinoxes fall about six hours earlier every year (with some correction every leap year), they are slowly but surely moving ahead in the calendar over time. The most common date for the Autumnal Equinox is September 22, slightly different than it has been for most of my life, when it has been September 23, which is also my birthday. As I get older, which I will do tomorrow, fewer and fewer of these cardinal points of the Earth's orbit will coincide with the cardinal points of my life.

On to Autumn.