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Astronomy Picture of the Day - Spring Equinox at Teide Observatory
NASA ^ | 20 Mar, 2026 | Image Credit & Copyright: Juan Carlos Casado (Starry Earth, TWAN)

Posted on 03/20/2026 2:04:27 PM PDT by MtnClimber

Explanation: The defining astronomical moment of the equinox today is at 14:46 UTC (March 20). That's when the Sun crosses the celestial equator moving north in its yearly journey through planet Earth's sky, marking the beginning of spring for our fair planet in the northern hemisphere and fall in the southern hemisphere. Then, day and night are nearly equal around the globe. In fact, both day and nighttime exposures from a spring equinox at the Observatorio del Teide in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, are used in this composited skyscape. Over 1,000 images were taken with a fisheye lens and merged in the ambitious equinox project. The apparent motion of the Sun setting along the celestial equator on the equinox date follows the bright linear, diagonal track from the sequence of daytime exposures taken over 6 hours. After sunset, nighttime exposures recorded startrails, with the celestial equator as a linear track and concentric arcs circling the north celestial pole near Polaris at upper right and the south celestial pole beyond the lower left edge (and below the Teide horizon). The foreground includes the distant Teide volcano peak and the observatory's pyramid-shaped solar laboratory building.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

1 posted on 03/20/2026 2:04:27 PM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 03/20/2026 2:04:48 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 4everontheRight; A Navy Vet; A_perfect_lady; abb; AFB-XYZ; AFPhys; ...
Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

3 posted on 03/20/2026 2:06:01 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

All right! Spring started 6 hours, 26 minutes ago! Yay.

Except we are having a heat dome and it’s 90 degrees here in Silicon Valley


4 posted on 03/20/2026 2:12:24 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: MtnClimber

Wowsers


5 posted on 03/20/2026 2:40:50 PM PDT by Adder (End fascism...defeat all Democrats.)
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To: MtnClimber
The second sentence of the posted excerpt is weird for being a NASA web site.

Nothing about Earth tilting on its axis, but states the Sun is “moving north in its yearly journey through planet Earth’s sky”.

6 posted on 03/20/2026 2:48:23 PM PDT by Deaf Smith (When a Texan takes his chances, chances will be taken that's for sure.)
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To: MtnClimber

Wow.


7 posted on 03/20/2026 3:16:07 PM PDT by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as )
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