The precise time when the sun enters one of the equinoctial points, or the first point of Aries, about March 21st, and the first point of Libra, about September 23rd, making the day and the night of equal length. These are called the vernal and autumnal equinoxes.

These points are found to be moving backward or westward, at the rate of 50" of a degree in a year.

This is called the precession of the equinoxes.

Equinox
Lyrics and music: Phil Lesh

Protected by Greatful Dead copywrights reprinted with permission: see Greatful Dead lyrics

This is an oddity. It was written by Phil Lesh as a song to be sung by Jerry Garcia. It is often called "Mercy of a Fool" in bootleg lyric lists but it seems that "Equinox" is the correct title.

It was recorded for the album Terrapin Station but wasn't. The only version I've got is a simply terrible quality version along with other Terrapin outtakes--hence some lyrics in parentasies (i'm not positive the're correct). It was never played live.

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She reclines, closing her eyes
The (still a bad sign) is bound to rise
Night birds and fireflies settle round her
Days grow long, strange (and clear)
Waterfalls shine again
Our lives go on down the stream
Shooting the rapids

Bright as gold
The arms you gave me
Bright as the eye of a hurricane
We're all just the (sage) going ()
Every moment is perfect, no sin is a jewel
If man is a prophet at the mercy of a fool

Watch the seasons go, as sunshine turns blue
Both so close
Sharing rain
(Come comes up) tomorrow
The great globe spins, the music starts
Every beat knows its part
To keep a spirit in a circle
The moment is perfect, the eye's a jewel
If man is a prophet with the mercy of a fool

UK Channel 4 TV popular TV Science Program, covering many issues each series. Similar in vein and content to Horizon, the BBC version.

I guess you've got me, there.
Hey, watch it, I'm sitting down here…don't you dare step on me.
I watch for great justice, I do! Don't step on me…
And today is the day of the eggs! They spin on end, today, but only today…
Tops with possible life within, but just a child's play thing now.

Sing the story, Cherished One! Laugh and fall over tables,
Yes, laugh and drink…yes, and more tea for the masses.
I make my own paths, because this world has none.
I wondered, for a time, how it was to live in a shelter of straw-laden students and girls made of shadow.
But I seem to have been navigating the Amazon…am I on a tributary of the great river now? Tribute.

Grr, stop looking at me in that tone of voice!
I hate it when you scream with your eyes like that…
So odd are you that I cower in your sight when I have no real reason.
Cold shoulder, cold as brass…cold as the winter sun.

And then I twirl the egg, and watch it fall on its side…
Glass houses and skipping stones and to you I'm just a doll.
Crying doesn't hurt…but I break down and dry your cheeks…
I'm glad it was too short…makes rafters miles away…
I condemn you to life with me.
Walk this way,
"But I don't want to go into details, please, don't make me…"
Do not step on me…allow me to touch your ankles, and don't you dare
Step on me…

The equinox occurs when the North and South poles of the Earth point at an angle of 90 degrees to the sun (i.e. when they are on the terminator). The Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn are about 23.5 degrees from the Equator, which means that during Summer solstice the pole makes an angle of (90 - 23.5) = 66.5 degrees with the sun (with the angle being measured as from the centre of the Earth). The equinoxes occur mid-way between the solstices. At the equinox, every point on the Earth (except the poles) experiences 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night.

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BaronCarlos's writeup highlights one of the problems that some scientists have with the Zodiac, and the way it is used and misused. Take the fact that the equinox is when the sun enters Aries or Libra, the fact that 'These points are found to be moving backward or westward, at the rate of 50" of a degree in a year', the fact that Aries and Libra are constellations, and the fact that a constellation has absolutely no connection whatsoever with the precession of Earth's equinoxes. There's a gaping hole somewhere in that chain of logic.

E"qui*nox (?), n. [OE. equinoxium, equenoxium, L. aequinoctium; aequus equal + nox, noctis, night: cf. F. 'equinoxe. See Equal, and Night.]

1.

The time when the sun enters one of the equinoctial points, that is, about March 21 and September 22. See Autumnal equinox, Vernal equinox, under Autumnal and Vernal.

When descends on the Atlantic The gigantic Stormwind of the equinox. Longfellow.

2.

Equinoctial wind or storm.

[R.]

Dryden.

 

© Webster 1913.