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It’s that time of year. Feeling gloomy? Perhaps it’s the shorter days of the season. Indeed, there’s a lot less sunlight. The afternoons seem to be particularly short. Well, I have good news; this is Analemma Day. This is the day of the earliest sunset in most of the Northern Hemisphere. After today, we’re over the hump, and the afternoons get progressively longer.
“What? I thought the shortest day of the year was the winter solstice, December 21.”
Indeed it is. But Earth’s orbit is elliptical, and “local noon” moves back and forth a bit.
If you set up a camera outside, with a timer set to pop off a shot at noon each day, of course, you’d see the sun higher in the summer and lower in the winter. But you’d also see the sun moving back and forth, and overall make the shape of a figure eight of sorts. This is the analemma.
So while the shortest day is December 21, today is the day of the earliest sunset.
[This is mostly a rerun of my previous post.]
Discussion (27)
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From NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day:
Quote:
Recorded from 2024 March 10, to 2025 March 1, this composited series of images reveals a pattern in the seasonal drift of the Sun's daily motion through planet Earth's sky. Known to some as an analemma, the figure-eight curve was captured in exposures taken on the indicated dates only at 18:38 UTC from the exact same location south of Stephenville, Texas. The Sun's position on the 2024 solstice dates of June 20 and December 21 would be at the top and bottom of the curve and correspond to the astronomical beginning of summer and winter in the north. Points that lie along the curve half-way between the solstices would mark the equinoxes. The 2024 equinox on September 22, and in 2025 the equinox on March 20 (today) are the start of northern fall and spring. And since one of the exposures was made on 2024 April 8 from the Stephenville location at 18:38:40 UTC, this analemma project also reveals the solar corona in planet Earth's sky during a total solar eclipse.
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I remember when globes had analemmas on them and I could use them to calculate the length of the day anywhere on Earth for any day of the year. It was back when I was in junior high.
I have forgotten how since then.
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Analemma...I think I dated her in high school.
I can show myself out.
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Photographing an analemma takes a lot of time, effort, and setup. Obviously. There are a limited number of photographs available. So that's something you can do if you want to become famous.
This guy found a super low budget slightly indirect approach:
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Very cool! I didn't know about analemma before, and the figure 8 is fascinating. Thanks, Don.
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