• Vernal Equinox

    From n2qfd@21:1/154 to All on Mon Mar 18 15:17:42 2024
    Well, tomorrow is Spring again in the northern hemisphere.

    We've got this interesting bit of public art in my city called the Solar Triangle. It was created and installed after some catastrophic flooding that happened in 1972 across the region. If you were in the east back then it was Hurricane Agnes that did the damage.
    So in Elmira, they tore down quite a lot of the river side buildings in a section of downtown and set about restoring and in front of the Elmira Savings Bank was placed the Sun Triangle though it's not the only one. There's also one in NYC near 1221 Avenue of the Americas that Neil deGrasse Tyson did a little blog post about once upon a time.
    The thing is, they're special sundials, alignment dials, and they show the position of the sun at local noon on the solstice and equinox days. The Solstice or equinox happen when they happen, the sculpture only points to where the sun will be at local (not standard time) noon on or about that day. Having all been though the annual sadomasochistic ritual of standard time shifting to daylight savings time...it's interesting to reflect that once upon a time before trains at least all time was local time. While the world coordinates via flying radioactive decay clocks in the GPS satellites,the Jewish world still relies on local time as do other cultures. The 1st hour is at the break of dawn but night is when 3 stars are visible in the sky. Even these are simplifications of the nuanced observations for telling the time. Imagine getting to live by the dictates of the sun rather than the clock!

    Here's the Historical Society post on the Triangle: http://chemungcountyhistoricalsociety.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-sun-triangle.htm l
    Here's a sunny day photo too: https://ninjachurchmouse.tumblr.com/post/704297330376146944/happy-winter-solsti ce-from-the-sun-triangle

    Sorry about the long URLs

    Hope it's a sunny start to the spring, hope it's a pleasant start to the fall for my southernly friends.

    N2QFD

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