Elena S. Laso |
Madrid (EFE) with the beginning of summer.
During the season, the solar eclipse will take place on April 20 and will be seen in Southeast Asia and Oceania, while the lunar eclipse, of the penumbral type, will take place on May 5 and can be seen from Africa, Asia and Oceania, according to calculations. of the National Astronomical Observatory (OAN).
A characteristic of spring is the length of the day, which lengthens rapidly, and thus, each day will dawn one minute earlier than the day before, and in the evening it will set more than a minute later; Therefore, since the beginning of the season, the time that the Sun is above the horizon increases by almost three minutes each day.
The beginning of the seasons is given by the instants in which the Earth is in certain positions in its orbit around the Sun; in the case of the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere, this position is the one in which the Sun, seen from the Earth, crosses the equator in its movement towards the north.
The day this happens, the duration of day and night practically coincide, called this circumstance the spring equinox.
Time change
Regarding the time change at this station, and although both the European Parliament and the European Commission have ruled in favor of eliminating time changes in the future, there is still no definitive decision on the matter.
For this reason, during this year the traditional change that takes place on the last Sunday of March will remain in force: on March 26, at 2:00 a.m. peninsular time, the clocks will be advanced one hour to mark 3:00 a.m. ; In the Canary Islands, 1:00 a.m. will become 2:00 a.m.
Some curiosities about spring
Throughout the 21st century, the beginning of spring can occur, at most, on three different calendar dates -March 19, 20 and 21-, its earliest beginning being the year 2096 and the latest beginning being the year 2096. from 2003.
These variations between years are due to the way in which the sequence of years according to the calendar (some are leap years, others not) fit with the duration of each orbit of the Earth around the Sun.
Planets, constellations and lunar phases
Spring will start with Jupiter, Venus and Mars after sunset, however the former will soon disappear in the west, while Mercury will make a brief appearance during the month of April.
The sunrises, on the other hand, will begin the spring with Saturn as the only visible planet; At the beginning of May, Jupiter will appear in the east, and during the month of June, Mercury will also be visible, very low on the horizon.
As for the constellations, at nightfall some typical winter ones such as Orion, Canis Mayor or Gemini will still be visible, but as the weeks progress, these constellations will move closer to the Sun to give way to others more typical of spring, like Leo, with its inverted question mark ending in the star Regulus.
Other phenomena of astronomical interest that stand out in spring are the Lyrid meteor showers, whose maximum is expected around April 23, and the Eta Aquarids, with maximum splendor around May 6; The full moons of the season will take place on April 6, May 5 and June 4.