Being behind the counter in Buzzy’s Country Store affords me some worthwhile learning opportunities. I say “worthwhile” because every day is a learning opportunity of sorts involving various subjects. For example, in my 11 years behind the counter I’ve learned more about cars, hunting and fishing than I will ever need to know. Gossip-wise, I’ve learned more about folks’ relatives, ex’s, acquaintances etc. than I ever needed and/or wanted to know.
Thus, much of the Buzzy banter I overhear I tend to categorize as “Useless Knowledge.” (I recall some college professor making the claim that “All knowledge is good.” Overall I would tend to agree that it is better to know things than it is to not know things. However, it can get a little subjective when it comes to discerning just what knowledge can be called good knowledge. And some of the things I overhear in Buzzy’s just don’t make the “good knowledge” cut.)
I thought of all this when listening to a couple of my Buzzy friends discuss the Equinox the other day. It was one of those barroom discussions where each of the participants had a little knowledge of the subject but didn’t let that stop them from sounding like they knew all about the subject.
The question surrounding the Autumnal Equinox, which was Sunday, involved why wasn’t the sun rise and sun set at the same time on Sunday? A quick look at the chart documenting these times shows that today the 26th is actually closer to being a true “Equinox” than was Sunday when the differential was approximately 7 minutes (6:56 vs. 7:03.)
After much to and fro, my Buzzy Cliffs (ala Cheers’ know it alls) admitted that they didn’t really know why the day and night wasn’t equal on the Equinox. However, as Buzzy conversations go, this was one I considered worthwhile because it did pique my interest in what they were discussing.
So it sent me to the ole Google machine where I found info on the matter. While I still can’t explain just why the Equinox is what it is, I did learn that it has something to do with how they compute the time of the sun rising and setting along with something to do with something called refraction. (I now see why my Buzzy friends were having trouble explaining it to one another.) If you want to pursue this some more just click on the link I’ve included below.
 |
| https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/equinox-not-equal.html |
Some nice sunrise photos for you here but with a warning – after you listen to this you will be do-do-doing-doing the rest of your day: