Dunkin Donuts
5075 Solomons Island Rd
Lothian, MD 20711
Come join us as we celebrate the beginning of longer and warmer days ahead on this first day of spring! We look forward to seeing you and hearing about some of your geocaching plans for the upcoming months. With plenty of seating indoors and out, and some options for breakfast if you choose, this location should be a good one to relax and visit with like-minded folks. Those new to geocaching are welcome to join us if you have questions or just want to learn more about geocaching in general.
The spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere (also called the March equinox or vernal equinox across the globe) occurs when the Sun crosses the celestial equator going south to north. It’s called the “celestial” equator because it’s an imaginary line in the sky above the Earth’s equator. Imagine standing on the equator; the Sun would pass directly overhead on its way north.
On the March equinox, the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere receive roughly equal amounts of sunlight; neither hemisphere is tilted more toward or away from the Sun than the other.
Although in most locations (the North Pole and Equator being exceptions), the amount of daylight had been increasing each day after the winter solstice, after the spring equinox, many places will experience more daylight than darkness in each 24-hour day. The amount of daylight each day will continue to increase until the summer solstice in June, during which the longest period of daylight occurs.
This is great news for geocachers! It means more daylight in which to find geocaches, especially those geocaches hidden within parks or other areas that can only be visited during daylight hours.
Here’s an interesting fact: Equinoxes are the only two times yearly that the Sun rises due east and sets due west for all of us on Earth! While the Sun passes overhead, the tilt of the Earth is zero relative to the Sun, which means that the Earth’s axis neither points toward nor away from the Sun. (Note, however, that the Earth never orbits upright but is always tilted on its axis by about 23.5 degrees.)
The word equinox comes from the Latin words for “equal night”—aequus (equal) and nox (night). On the equinox, the length of day and night is nearly equal in all parts of the world.
Reference: https://www.almanac.com/content/first-day-spring-vernal-equinox