Sunrise on the vernal equinox, 23rd September 2020
Observing the sunrise on the vernal equinox is different from the winter one (which was very cold) and from the autumnal equinox because (curiously), daylight saving time is in place at that time of year in autumn, but has not yet come into effect in spring. I find this puzzling, but it means that the natural early waking with sunrise occurs at a convenient clock-based time in spring. I would prefer that daylight saving time does not intrude past the equinoxes into winter, as it's not nice to lose mornings when the day is more than half night.
This is an earlier photograph than the one above. Included because of the colourful clouds.
The sunrise at this location occurs nearly half an hour later than the listed time, partly because of generalizations in my information (the internet) and partly due to the deep valley and accompanying ridge to the east of my location. As I had moderately confidently predicted, the equinoxes both gave the same sun sightings. This is pleasing...
The marker that I placed in the convenient crack in the boulder was still there.
...so I decided not to walk the line to the sunrise. The vernal sunrise is a little to the south of the one I observed on the autumnal equinox, because that observation occurred a day or so after the astonomical date, so the sun had moved slightly to the north. I will make a commemorative visit to the more southern location in due course, but not by my primitive navigation methods.
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