FULL MOON TWICE

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 148, 20 March 1934, Page 8

FULL MOON TWICE

Peculiarity This Month EXTENDED SUMMER TIME Full moon occurs twice this month, as it also did in January. February, the month between the two, missed a full moon completely. January and March are the only calendar months this year in which there are two full moons. The last two full moons were respectively at 4.31 a.m. on January 21 and at 10.26 p.m. on March 1, and the next is at 12.45 p.m. on the last day of this month. This is also the month of the autumnal equinox for the Southern Hemisphere, when the sun is immediately over the equator on its way to provide the northern summer. The days are, therefore, becoming noticeably shorter. In the ordinary course of events summer time would have lapsed into standard time on Sunday morning at 2 o’clock, but the privilege of an extra half-hour of daylight in the evening has been extended until April 29, the last Sunday of next month. People who have calendars printed before the extension granted by Parliament toward the end of last session would be wise to change the marked date in order to avoid confusion.

Although for practical purposes March 21 is taken as the day on w’hleh there Is 12 hours between sunrise and sunset, the astronomical calculations for this year show that the nominal amount of daylight on that day is 12 hours 9 minutes. That figure is gradually reduced until on March 25 there is 12 hours 1 minute, and the following day .11 hours 58 minutes.

Similarly, the general practice of nominating June 21 to June 23 as tlie “shortest days” each year is erroneous in practice. This year the shortest estimated days are from June 20 to June 24, when there will be nominally 9 hours 38 minutes of sunshine. On June 20 the sun rises at 7.03 a.m. and sets at 4.41 p.m. Tlie latter time, however, is constant from June 8 to June 20, and from June 24 to July 6 the time of sunrise is estimated to be 7.04 a.m. ■'