What is "equinox"

Equinox \E"qui*nox\, n. [OE. equinoxium, equenoxium, L. aequinoctium; aequus equal + nox, noctis, night: cf. F.

1. The time when the sun enters one of the equinoctial points, that is, about March 21 and September 2

2. See Autumnal equinox, Vernal equinox, under Autumnal and Vernal.

   When descends on the Atlantic The gigantic Stormwind of the equinox.
   --Longfellow.

   2. Equinoctial wind or storm. [R.]
   --Dryden.

c.1400, "point at which the sun crosses the earth's equator, making day and night of equal length everywhere," from Old French equinoce (12c.) or directly from Medieval Latin equinoxium "equality of night (and day)," from Latin aequinoctium, usually in plural, dies aequinoctii "the equinoxes," from aequus "equal" (see equal (adj.)) + nox (genitive noctis) "night" (see night). The Old English translation was efnniht. Related: Equinoctial.

n. The intersection of the ecliptic (apparent path of the sun) with the celestial equator.

1. n. either of two times of the year when the sun crosses the plane of the earth's equator and day and night are of equal length

2. (astronomy) either of the two celestial points at which the celestial equator intersects the ecliptic [syn: equinoctial point]

An equinox is an astronomical event in which the plane of Earth's equator passes through the center of the Sun, which occurs twice each year, around 20 March and 23 September.

On an equinox, day and night are of approximately equal duration all over the planet. They are not exactly equal, however, due to the angular size of the sun and atmospheric refraction. To avoid this ambiguity, the word equilux is sometimes used to mean a day in which the durations of light and darkness are equal. See Length of equinoctial day and night for further discussion.

The word is derived from the Latin aequinoctium, aequus (equal) and nox (genitive noctis) (night).

Equinox is the fifth album by Styx, released in December 1975.

The album was the band's first release for A&M Records (with whom they signed earlier in 1975, after the unexpected success of the single " Lady").

The album also marked the final appearance of original Styx guitarist John Curulewski who left the band abruptly following the release of Equinox. The band went into a frantic search to find a replacement for their upcoming tour to support Equinox. Soon after, they found Tommy Shaw.

The album's biggest hit was the track " Lorelei", which was Styx's second US Top 30 hit. Another well-known song in the album was "Suite Madame Blue" (the title of which has a play on the word "sweet" to refer to the musical term of "suites", i.e. unrelated instrumental successions) which was written about the upcoming Bicentennial of the US. The track became a staple for all Styx tours with Dennis DeYoung. It's a rare example of a Styx song that (briefly) requires four voice parts; during the Return to Paradise tour, the "America" bridge would be sung by DeYoung, Shaw, James Young and the usually silent Chuck Panozzo.

Although Equinox stalled at #58, it went Gold in 1977 shortly before the release of The Grand Illusion.

Equinox International was a multi-level marketing organization, headed by Bill Gouldd. In the early-to-mid-1990s, Equinox was one of the fastest-growing companies in the United States. It had its headquarters in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Beginning in 1996, Equinox came under scrutiny for a number of improprieties and illegal acts, including deceptive recruitment tactics. Numerous individuals had filed criminal and civil complaints against Equinox, claiming the firm had swindled them out of money.

On 25 April 2000, the Federal Trade Commission issued a notice that Equinox International had settled the court case with a penalty of $40,000,000 in restitution to the victims of Equinox International.

Additionally, Gouldd, the principal of Equinox International, was forced to liquidate many of his possessions and is furthermore barred for life from participating in any network marketing organization in the United States.

Equinox International dissolved in 2001.

Equinox, known in Japan as , is an isometric 3D action– puzzle-hybrid video game developed by Software Creations and published by Sony Imagesoft and Sony Computer Entertainment for the Super NES in 1994. It is the sequel to Solstice: The Quest for the Staff of Demnos, a 1990 Nintendo Entertainment System game.

An equinox in astronomy is the event when the Sun can be observed to be directly above the equator.

Equinox may also refer to:

Equinox (Terrance Sorenson) is a fictional character, a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Equinox was a long-running Channel 4 popular science and documentary programme. The series ran from 1986 to 2001, originally airing on a weekly basis.

The number of films per series fell over the years, from eighteen one-hour films a year originally to twelve by the late 1990s. The last regular series was shown in 2001, with six films. One-off films have occasionally been aired under the title "Equinox Special" (e.g. the 90-minute Secrets of the Super Psychics first transmitted in 1997).

Equinox is an Amiga demo group with an active period between the years 1987-1996.

The name Equinox was not used from the beginning. In the early days the group were called themselves "The Powerlords", or sometimes "The Powerlords Corporation" (TPL), which consisted of sections in Sweden, Norway and the United Kingdom. At the end of 1990, just after The Powerlords and Aurora's Amiga Halloween Conference, TPL was about to break up. Some members did have some short adventures in other groups at this time. In December 1990 the former organizers of the United Kingdom, Sweden and Norway sections decided to keep the best members and change the group name to Equinox. Some time later, a group from Switzerland that was active for many years as 'Equinoxe', cut off the 'e' and joined Equinox.

Equinox released a bit over 30 Amiga demos and intros, and also got well known for releasing the disk magazine European Top 20, a combined chart and magazine in the years 1992 to 1993. Their demo party arranged together with Horizon in Eskilstuna 1993 assembled 500 persons.

Up until 1993, Equinox was a pure demo group, but then started to grow at large in the trading and board scene as well. Lots of traders and some of Sweden's biggest boards at the time joined the group. Equinox primetime chart, the European Top 20, reflected this by having lots of board scene related categories and articles.

Equinox (also known as The Equinox... A Journey into the Supernatural, and released on home video as The Beast) is a 1970 American independent horror film directed by Dennis Muren and Jack Woods, and starring Edward Connell, Barbara Hewitt, Frank Bonner and award-winning science fiction/horror writer Fritz Leiber. The plot focuses on four teenagers having a picnic in the canyons of California who stumble upon an ancient book containing secrets of a strange world that exists alongside humans, and consequently unleash a plethora of evil creatures and monsters.

Made on a budget of a mere $6,500 in 1967, Equinox initially gained a reputation as a midnight movie during its theatrical run, but has in later years been noted for its economical yet sophisticated use of stop-motion special effects and cel animation, which were provided by Dave Allen and Jim Danforth; the latter later worked on Flesh Gordon, in which he animated a giant monster similar to the ones in Equinox. The film has been influential to the horror and sci-fi monster genres, receiving praise from filmmaker George Lucas and effects artist Ray Harryhausen; it was also noted as a main inspiration for Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead (1983). It was released on DVD by The Criterion Collection in 2006.

Equinox is a French demogroup with an active period between the years 1988-2007.

Equinox was first an Atari ST demoscene crew, famous for the Pupul intro, an Atari conversion of the Amiga DOC demo. Till 1991 they made various intros then from 1991 to 1999 they released one megademo (the Vodka demo) and 2 multipart demos: Eat my Bollocks and Virtual Escape.

Since 2004, they are active on PC and known for their 64kb invitation intros. Their invitation intro for the Evoke 2004 party became one of the most popular intros of that year, being nominated for three Scene.org Awards.

Their latest production is "Frameskool", the official 64kb invitation for Breakpoint 2007 party.

Equinox was a thrash metal band from Fredrikstad, Norway that started in 1987. The initial band members were Grim Stene ( guitar/ vocals), Ragnar 'Raggen' Westin ( drums) and Skule Stene ( bass guitar) who were all ex- Rebellion members. In 1988 Tommy Skarning joined as a second guitarist. On the Labyrinth album Tommy was no longer with the band, and Raggen was exchanged with Jørn Wangsholm. The band broke up in 1995.

1. redirect Libra (DC Comics)

"Equinox" is a two-part episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager, the cliffhanger between the fifth and sixth seasons.

Equinox is an action video game developed by Mikro-Gen in 1986 for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64.

Equinox is the second album by Sérgio Mendes and Brasil '66, with vocalists Lani Hall and Janis Hansen.

Equinox is a Slovene-language opera by the Slovenian composer Marjan Kozina. Based on a play by the Croatian writer Ivo Vojnović, Kozina wrote the score and the libretto from 1940 until 1943 and then buried it in the garden of his parents to prevent its loss during the World War II. It was first performed in Ljubljana on May 2, 1946, under conduction by Samo Hubad. In 1948, Kozina was awarded the Prešeren Award for it.

Category:1943 operas Category:Slovene-language operas Category:Operas by Marjan Kozina

"Equinox" is a minor blues jazz standard by American jazz saxophone player and composer John Coltrane. Originally released on Coltrane's Sound played in C minor with a slow swing feel. However, it is usually played in the key of C Minor and often covered on the flute.

Equinox is a 1993 film written and directed by Alan Rudolph. It stars Matthew Modine in dual roles, along with Lara Flynn Boyle, Marisa Tomei, Lori Singer and Fred Ward. The film was shot in Minnesota and Utah and is set in the fictional urban city of Empire. It was nominated for four Independent Spirit Awards.

Equinox is a 1973 novel by Samuel R. Delany, and is Delany's first published foray into explicitly sexual material. It tells of a series of erotic and violent encounters in a small American seaport following the arrival of an African-American sea captain. It is a non science fiction work, though with fantastic elements.

Peter Nicholls in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction described the work as "serious in intent, though likely to be shocking to most readers in its evocation of the extremes of sadomasochism in imagery which is sometimes poetic and often disgusting -and so intended- perhaps as a Baudelairean ritual of passage".

In astronomy, equinox is a moment in time at which the vernal point, celestial equator, and other such elements are taken to be used in the definition of a celestial coordinate system. The position at other equinoxes can be computed by taking into account precession, nutation and aberration, which directly affect e.g. right ascension and declination.

In contrast " epoch" is a moment in time for which a given position of an astronomical object is valid. The position at other epochs can be computed by taking into account proper motion, parallax and/or orbital elements.

In the case of orbital elements for objects within the solar system, only a few of the classical orbital elements are affected by a switch of equinox: the longitude of the ascending node, and (to a much lesser extent) the inclination. If another set of orbital elements are used, such as the position and velocity vectors for a particular epoch, all components can be affected by a switch of equinox.

Equinox is often confused with epoch with the difference between the two being that the equinox addresses changes in the coordinate system, while the epoch addresses changes in the position of the celestial body itself. The currently used standard equinox (and epoch) is J2000.0, which is January 1, 2000 at 12:00 TT. The prefix "J" indicates that it is a Julian epoch. The previous standard equinox (and epoch) was B1950.0, with the prefix "B" indicating it was a Besselian epoch. Before 1984 Besselian equinoxes and epochs were used. Since that time Julian equinoxes and epochs have been used.

Other equinoxes/epochs that have been used include:

• The Bonner Durchmusterung started by Friedrich Wilhelm August Argelander uses B1855.0
• The Henry Draper Catalog uses B1900.0
• Constellation boundaries were defined in 1930 along lines of right ascension and declination for the B1875.0 epoch.
• Occasionally, non-standard equinoxes have been used, such as B1925.0 and B1970.0
• The Hipparcos Catalog uses the ICRS coordinate system (which is essentially equinox J2000.0) but uses an epoch of J1991.25. For objects with a significant proper motion assuming that the epoch is J2000.0 leads to a large position error. Assuming that the equinox is J1991.25 leads to a large error for nearly all objects.

Epochs and equinoxes for orbital elements are usually given in Terrestrial Time, in several different formats, including:

• Gregorian date with 24-hour time: 2000 January 1, 12:00 TT
• Gregorian date with fractional day: 2000 January 1.5 TT
• Julian day with fractional day: JDT 2451545.0
• NASA/ NORAD's Two-line elements format with fractional day: 00001.50000000

In computing, Equinox is a sub-project of the Eclipse project that provides a certified implementation of the OSGi R4.x core framework specification. It is a module runtime that allows developers to implement an application as a set of "bundles" using the common services infrastructure.

Equinox began as a project to replace the original Eclipse plug-in runtime in version 3.0 of Eclipse (c. 2004). The open source project was seeded with code donated by . It was further developed to meet the needs of the Eclipse community. The adaptations were made into the OSGi specification process, with many being incorporated in the R4 release of the OSGi framework specification. Since then, Equinox has been the reference implementation for the OSGi framework specification.

Equinox is the twenty-third studio album by Omar Rodríguez-López as a solo artist. Although Rodriguez-Lopez Productions intended to release the album on December 28, 2012 (which is the date listed on the Bandcamp page), it was only made available on January 1, 2013. Equinox is the first Mars Volta-related release since 2009's Xenophanes to feature band's ex-drummer Thomas Pridgen. The instrumental tracks to the songs "Oír Hasta Júpiter" and "Mermaid Grapefruit" were first heard on the soundtrack to the 2007 film El Búfalo de la Noche for which Omar wrote the score in 2005-2006.

Since 2014 the album is no longer available to purchase officially, as Rodriguez-Lopez's Bandcamp page has been taken down after a split with Sargent House label.