March 21, 2010 - Balancing Act

Welcome to the Nature Notebook.

Yesterday was a milestone in Earth’s annual journey around the sun. It marked a time when day and night balanced as our planet reached a point in its orbit when the Earth’s axis was tilted neither toward nor away from the sun. That results in the sun positioned vertically above the equator for a moment of time. It also results in all points on Earth having roughly an equal amount of daylight and dark. For us in north central Pennsylvania that meant daylight lasted 12 hours and 9 minutes. And for us in the Northern Hemisphere it signals the start of spring. From now until the summer solstice, the sun will climb higher in the sky each day. Days get longer and warmer. Our next balance point is on Sept. 22 when we mark the autumnal equinox.

This is PPL's naturalist, Jon Beam, with the Nature Notebook for WVIA.