Uganda: Crossing the Equator

One of the cool things that I've loved about my trip so far is crossing the Equator. I have only done that once before (last summer when I flew to Bolivia), and this was the first time I got to do it by land.

The Earth is divided into imaginary lines to help people locate things. Imagine if you were lost at sea or on land and you couldn't see anything in any direction. It could be pretty hard to tell where you were! The lines help you know locations of things.

Longitude lines connect the North Pole and the South Pole. They look like you've divided the Earth into segments like an orange.

Latitude lines divide the Earth the other way.

The line of latitude that divides the Earth into two equal halves is called the Equator. If you picture a globe, it's the part that is the widest. It's a consistent distance from the sun, so places close to the Equator don't change very much in terms of temperature throughout the year. They have seasons, but they're related to the amount of rain that falls (the rainy season and the dry season).

Other famous lines of latitude include the Tropic of Cancer, which is 23.5 degrees North of the Equator (between the Equator and the North Pole), the Tropic of Capricorn, which is 23.5 degrees South of the Equator (between the Equator and the South Pole),

and the Arctic Circle, which is 60 degrees North of the Equator.

The most famous line of longitude is the Prime Meridian, which goes through Greenwich, England. When I was a kid, we took a family trip there and I remember standing with one foot on one side and one foot on the other.

The International Date Line is not actually a line of longitude, but it kind of acts like one. It's on the opposite side of the globe from the Prime Meridian, out in the Pacific Ocean. That is where we start the day from. Countries close to the west of it would be the first to start the day (like New Zealand and Japan). As the Earth rotates, the sun starts to hit Asia, Australia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. This is why you can watch Sydney, Australia ring in the New Year when it's still the day for us.

For me, I crossed the Equator on the plane flying from Ethiopia to Kenya, then again on the bus from Kenya to Uganda, then one more time on the bus from Entebbe, Uganda to Mbarara, Uganda. So I'm now back on the south side of the Equator. I'll be in the Southern Hemisphere for the next two months!

One last cool thing...you know how the moon goes through stages, sometimes it's full, sometimes it's a crescent, and so on? Well at home, the crescent shape looks kind of like this:

but when you're close to the Equator, the crescent moon looks like this:

Now I'll be honest, I can't explain to you why. I'm guessing it has to do with the angle at which you're seeing the moon, but I'm not sure. You're welcome to look that up and let me know! :)