Neil deGrasse Tyson Instagram – ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Merry Equinox to all residents of planet Earth. On this day, Earth’s tilted axis points neither towards nor away from the Sun. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Astronomically, that gives us Spring, north of the equator, and Autumn, south of it. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Also 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of nighttime – worldwide. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ But if you check your sunrise/sunset tables, you will notice slightly more than 12 hours of sunlight for today. Mostly caused by the refraction of sunlight entering Earth’s atmosphere from space. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ When you see the Sun rise or set, what you actually see is the location of the Sun’s refracted light, and not the location of the Sun itself, adding multiple minutes of unearned daylight — daily — that wouldn’t otherwise be there. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ [Sunset over the Grand Canyon (NDTyson 1973). Pentax SP500. 210mm zoom telephoto. Kodacolor 100]