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[Phys-L] Re: Solstices and Equinoxes Down Under



Edmiston, Mike wrote:

(1) Do textbook publishers write a separate version of astronomy texts
for sale in the Southern Hemisphere,

Usually not.

or do those folks just suffer with
textbooks that have things labeled backwards?

Usually it's just a mess.

In *my* writings, I have adopted the following trick: Any ideas that
need to be reversed down under are flagged with the § symbol;
northern audiences can just ignore the flag. For instance: cyclones
rotate counter-clockwise§.

Another trick I've used is to refer to the northern solstice and the
southern solstice (which happen in June and December, respectively,
no matter where you are).

I explicitly duck the question of whether "vernal equinox" equates
to "spring equinox". It's a mess.

=============

And just for fun, speaking of non-portable calendars:

-- Think how much fun it is to fast from dawn to dusk when Ramadan
occurs in June in (say) Nordkapp, Norway.

-- Similarly, it's sometimes tough to define Shabbat in terms of three
stars seen in the evening.

The list goes on and on......
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