by Nitpicker » Tue Sep 23, 2014 12:26 am
APOD Robot wrote:The next Earth equinox is scheduled for March.
tneuschatz wrote:I see from the comment that the next equinox has been scheduled - by whom?
![Laughing :lol2:](./images/smilies/asterisk_laugh.gif)
Humans have doubtless been able to predict (and hence schedule) things like equinoxes and solstices since ancient times, at least to the nearest month (or lunation). However, left to our own devices, the vast majority of humans would not be able to predict (and hence schedule) them as precisely as this:
2014 Southward Equinox: 2014-09-23 02:29 UT (in just over two hours from my typing this),
2014 Southern Solstice: 2014-12-21 23:03 UT,
2015 Northward Equinox: 2015-03-20 22:45 UT,
2015 Northern Solstice: 2015-06-21 16:38 UT.
For that level of precision, we can thank science and scientists. (Of course, they are still just predictions. An unforeseen massive object could still hurtle through the inner Solar System, say, to perturb our orbit and put these predictions in error. Let's just hope it doesn't happen. Fingers crossed.)
[quote="APOD Robot"]The next Earth equinox is scheduled for March.[/quote]
[quote="tneuschatz"]I see from the comment that the next equinox has been scheduled - by whom? :lol2:[/quote]
Humans have doubtless been able to predict (and hence schedule) things like equinoxes and solstices since ancient times, at least to the nearest month (or lunation). However, left to our own devices, the vast majority of humans would not be able to predict (and hence schedule) them as precisely as this:
2014 Southward Equinox: 2014-09-23 02:29 UT (in just over two hours from my typing this),
2014 Southern Solstice: 2014-12-21 23:03 UT,
2015 Northward Equinox: 2015-03-20 22:45 UT,
2015 Northern Solstice: 2015-06-21 16:38 UT.
For that level of precision, we can thank science and scientists. (Of course, they are still just predictions. An unforeseen massive object could still hurtle through the inner Solar System, say, to perturb our orbit and put these predictions in error. Let's just hope it doesn't happen. Fingers crossed.)