Put another way; When they say on the equinox the sun is directly above the equator maybe that is true for only one particular longitude on the equator.
The equinox is not a day, it is a precise moment. So if I was on the equator on the day of the equinox and marked the sunrise and marked the sunset and drew a line between them it would not be east to west but slightly skewed. As I watch the sun it moves slightly north or south throughout the day depending on the season. Doesn't this mean that our sundials should be adjusted accordingly? Wouldn't they work more accurate if we had them aligned not east to west but slightly skewed? Of course we would have to realign them each season. On 3/13/2011 7:49 AM, Brent wrote:
I was thinking that the sun tracks a straight line across each latitude line. So at an equinox the sun will be directly above the equator for one earth revolution and the next day it will shift a few degrees and be tracking a higher latitude. But that can't be right, we don't jump from one latitude to the next. The transition must be smooth from one latitude to the next. The latitude tracking lines would look more like a spiral cut ham. So if I track the sun across my sky on any day, it is not moving exactly east to west but slightly skewed depending on the season. Is this right? If so, what do you call that spiral line? brent --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
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