“Why does the Sun Rise and Set Over the Yellow Line in the Middle of the Road on the First Day of Spring?”

Scheduled air date: 2006 Jan 13-19

Spring officially begins in the Northern Hemisphere (and Autumn for the Southern Hemisphere) on Monday, March 20 at 1:26 PM EST/10:26 AM PST. On this date, the Sun rises due east and sets due west.
The Sun's position is shown for sunrise followed by one-hour intervals for the Summer Solstice (June 20~22*), the Equinoxes (March 20~22* and September 20~22*) and Winter Solstice (December 20~22*).
*The exact dates vary slightly each year due to the difference in length of  our calendar year and the actual time required for the Earth to make one revolution around the Sun.

If you wish to view illustrations for other episodes, please see our Star Gazer Illustrated directory.

Illustrations on this page were created using TheSky6 Astronomy Software, an advanced desktop planetarium program designed for Windows. Copyright © 1999-2006 by Software Bisque, Inc.