Earliest sunset of the year today (Dec 7th)

PhantomCougar

PhantomCougar

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Well it's Dec 7.... which in the the northern hemisphere means the earliest sunset of the year. All sunsets from now until June will occur later in the day.

Of course, for you morning folk, the latest sunrise doesn't occur until Jan 4.

Meaning it all balances out on Dec 21 for the shortest day of the year.

Think I am full of it? Well generally yes, but not this time. Check out topics on analemma.... which basically describe the basic wobble of the earth on it's axis over the course of the year. On Dec 7th, our view of the sun has shifted to the right of center right now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analemma

http://members.aol.com/jwholtz/analemma/analemma.htm

analemma.jpg


This funny picture was taken by someone who kept a camera in one spot for a whole year and took a snapshot at the same time every evening in Colorado. You can see that starting around Dec 7 to Dec 21, the sunsets about the same time but gets progressively higher as the date approaches Jan 4th (and beyond!).

Ever wonder what the funny looking figure 8 is in the middle of the ocean on a globe? That's right.....Analemma. A required adjustment for those who navigate by the sun and a sextant.

http://www.imakenews.com/symmntp/e_article000243738.cfm
 
There is more to that photo than meets the eye. 365 consecutive cloudless skies at the same time each day? There must be some photoshopping going on here. But the concept is correct.

-Skip
 
Skip Miller said:
There is more to that photo than meets the eye. 365 consecutive cloudless skies at the same time each day? There must be some photoshopping going on here. But the concept is correct.

-Skip
Click to expand...
Probably took the photo each day but the removed the clouds or clouded up ones, but it is a neat photo.
 
Skip Miller said:
There is more to that photo than meets the eye. 365 consecutive cloudless skies at the same time each day? There must be some photoshopping going on here. But the concept is correct.

-Skip
Click to expand...

smigaldi said:
Probably took the photo each day but the removed the clouds or clouded up ones, but it is a neat photo.
Click to expand...

Probably didn't have to mess with too many. There are a lot of sunny days in Denver. Still, a neat picture.
 
Excellent, thanks for the link.
Got to get the ol' sextant out soon.
 
Here is how the picture was made

http://epod.usra.edu/archive/epodviewer.php3?oid=228384

The analemma above was made from my home in Cascade, Colorado (near Colorado Springs). Because we had approximately 300 mostly sunny days here in 2004, it was possible to portray the Sun's motion during the course of a year -- each image was taken at 14:28:00 (local time). 365 photos were used between December 4, 2003 and December 4, 2004. The image of the Sun for December 5, 2003 nearly perfectly overlaps the image for December 4, 2004. When a day was cloudy, an extrapolation was made.
Click to expand...
 
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