Newspapers EVERYWHERE in Spain reveal facts at 6 o´clock am
email to many institutes in Europe - and the BBC
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CURRENTLY IN ` S P A I N. ` September 26th, 2009
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I have to eat my sombrero ! :
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The papers show sunrise and sunset both to be at 8:15 on the clocks here !
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As an oldie, I have to realise that many folks have not had as much of the historical teachings as I did. Certainly, some of the statements that i ave made recently have not appeared in the curriculum anywhere!
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.On Wednesday LAST week, the World experienced the so-called Equinox - or First Day of the current season !
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Supposedly, that day was seen in many newspapers as the day and night of equal duration between sunrise and sunset - BUT, was it?
Certainly, not! Instead a day quite distant from Wednesday could be observed as that one in many newspapers (on the Weather Page, perhaps)
In the Northern Hemisphere you had to search later than 23rd September - BUT, in the Southern H. you had to catch it earlier than 23rd September !
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Everywhere on Earth, the official date was served with potentially more than 7 minutes extra to 12 hours of Sun - enough minutes in reserve to last more than 3 - 4 days !
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All of this has been with us for more than 300 years - ever since British Astronomers realised that the Equator had a greater significance than previously appreciated ! Like earlier Europeans of the time, they were concerned witrh the behaviour of the Sun in its passage over the Equator - rather than that observed in Europe !
SO, the Brits changed the dates from the traditional days to a new one not showing the Equinox anywhere ! The traditional date for Spring was about 17th March in England and Autumn was equally seen to have been around 26th September !
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Jonathan Swift was extremely angry with Greenwich about the change and made Gulliver equally angry with the Astronomers of Brobdiggnag !
(Incidentally, a gigantic mock-up of Gulliver is currently making its rounds in Europe!).
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What it means in practice is that sunrise and sunset are actually around 6 o`clockon sundials everywhere that are reacting to the traditional date !
SO, the Spanish authorities are chary of anyone seeing sunrise/sunset to be at 08:15 and 20:15 since it demonstrates that the clocks are running more than two hours faster than the truth !
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ADDITIONAL POINTS
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Firstly, there is an important difference between Europe and the U S A in that the Daylight Saving Time condition occurs at different dates in the year.
In Europe the last days of March and the last days of October show the change in clock times. In the U S A you make them the first days in those months !
So in Europe it is the Autumn Gulliver´s Day which shows up the great difference in the clocks compared to the sundial time - because Double DST happens beyond that date.
MAINLY, there is something of a problem in the USA in March, because you ought to experience brighter mornings than the murky ones you have in March !
NEXT, the Southern States of USA are too far south to have a real benefit from Daylight Saving Time. (See the McGraw-Hill Science Encyclopedia on the subject of DST - and there you are unlikely to see anything about Double DST because the States hardly realises that condition exists anywhere !).
The morning sunrise times are not so much in the wee hours of the morning in the South because of the delay in those times.
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Currently, the US Authorities are keeping on hold the idea to abolish DST - but I would suggest just changing the March Starting Time for DST to the last Sunday in March - then the mornings would be brighter for commuting to work !
[ 11:29 ] [ Saturday 3 October 2009 ]