Where does the sun really set?
Ten questions about the Sun across the year, for the Northern Hemisphere at mid-latitudes (roughly 35 to 55 degrees north). You get the answer and the reason after each one.
Now see it for your own window.
This page is from the team behind Asterfold: Sunset Planner for iPhone. This quiz covers the general rules. According to its App Store listing, Asterfold applies them to the places you actually watch from:
- A sky dome that draws the Sun's real path for any place and date, coloured by golden hour, blue hour and twilight
- The year's range of sunset and sunrise directions on the rim, with shortcuts to the key dates
- Save the exact spot you shoot from and aim at it on a first-person horizon, with lenses from 14 mm to 200 mm
- See the dates this year when the Sun sets or rises inside your frame
- Calculated on your iPhone, so it works offline
The answers on this page apply to the Northern Hemisphere at mid-latitudes. In the Southern Hemisphere the seasons and directions are mirrored. Nothing here is saved or sent anywhere.
The shortcut to remember
In the Northern Hemisphere, summer swings the Sun north and high; winter swings it south and low. Everything else follows from that. The sunset point moves north of west in summer and south of west in winter, noon shadows are short in summer and long in winter, and the days stretch and shrink around the two solstices.
Twice a year, at the equinoxes, the Sun rises and sets almost exactly east and west, wherever you are on Earth.
Why the earliest sunset is not on the shortest day
The day with the least daylight is the December solstice, but the clock times of sunrise and sunset do not move in perfect step with it. Earth's orbit is slightly oval and its axis is tilted, so solar noon drifts a little against clock noon through the year. The result is that at mid-latitudes the earliest sunset arrives in early December, and the latest sunrise follows in early January.
Questions
Where does the sun rise and set during the year?
In the Northern Hemisphere it rises and sets furthest north in June and furthest south in December. At the equinoxes it rises almost due east and sets almost due west.
Why is the earliest sunset before the winter solstice?
Solar time and clock time drift apart during the year because Earth's orbit is not a perfect circle and its axis is tilted. At mid-latitudes the earliest sunset falls about two weeks before the December solstice.
Does this apply in the Southern Hemisphere?
The ideas are the same but mirrored. The Sun is to the north at noon, shadows point south, and the longest day is in December.
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