Monday, March 20, 2000, is the day of the vernal equinox.
Not for you and me, Roger. For us in the Pacific Standard
time zone (and those west of us) the vernal equinox is at
11:35 PM PST on Sunday, 19 March - tomorrow night. This is
the result of having had a leap day this year. The year
2000 will have the calendrically earliest seasons of all
the years of this century according to "The Explanatory
Supplement to the Astronomical Ephemeris and the American
Ephemeris and astronomical Almanac". The year 1903 had the
latest vernal equinox, a day and a half later than this
year, and the year 2096 will have the earliest possible
equinox, seventeen hours earlier than tomorrow's equinox,
calendrically speaking. However if you want to celebrate
really early, use the Julian calendar. Sunday is the fifth
of March by Caesar's reckoning.
I'm not sure there is any physical significance to the
factoids I have just cast before you, but they seem to be
useful for planning parties and seductions. Astrology is
not completely dead.
Leigh
(The time of the vernal equinox is 0735 20 March 2000 UT
according to my pocket diary from the Particle Data Group
at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. In the ESAEAEAA the time
is given as 7h UT, no more precision than that. You have
my permission to start your party early. Please invite me
if you plan to do anything more exciting than egg-balancing
at the crucial moment.)
*My apologies to my friends in the southern hemisphere for
using ancient and hence politically incorrect nomenclature
in this note.