Luke Coletti wrote:

> Define sunrise as the time when the apparent altitude (H) of the
> upper limb of the Sun will be -50 arc minutes (34' for refraction +
> 16' for semidiameter).

I thought this might give Bart a way out, but it goes in the wrong
direction. If you define equinox the way any good witchdoctor would,
as the date when day and night are equally long, or as the date when
sunrise and sunset are 180 degrees apart, atmospheric refraction gives
you a systematic discrepancy relative to astronomical data, shifting
the equinox a good day farther into the winter. Unfortunately, Bart
wants to get married a day farther into the summer. How about getting
married in a valley, and counting the time the sun rises/sets over the
mountain tops?

Art

-- 
To study, to finish, to publish. -- Benjamin Franklin

Dr. Arthur Carlson
Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics
Garching, Germany
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.rzg.mpg.de/~awc/home.html

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