Then, for the next six months, in the other half of the orbit, the northern climes of Earth receive less and less direct rays until the tilting axis of rotation brings shade to the north pole and less direct rays to those of us within the northern temperate zone. Then, the south receives the more direct illumination of the Sun. These ever recurring changes repeat with each yearly orbit. Day after day it is the same, but not quite. Each wave of daylight comes at a slightly different place upon our horizon.
Nights are as short as they can get.
Then, slowly, as Earth moves on, the Sun slips southward in its rising and setting points and lower across the sky each day. Days get shorter and nights longer. Faster and faster the change occurs until we reached the time of equality between light and dark. The maximum speed of change, the point of balance between day and night, is reached every year in late September. So, on the day of the equinox the Sun rises directly east, crosses our sky in the middle of its range, and sets directly west.