Astronomy lesson: Sunrise photos show Earth’s movement around the sun as summer progresses toward autumn
Jack Howison’s dramatic photos of sunrise bring joy to our readers every day. Today we show in his photos the effect of the tilt in Earth’s axis on our view of the sun as Earth progresses during summer toward autumn on its annual journey around the sun.
June 22. Above is the sun at its rising just after June 21, the first day of summer and the longest day of the year. The sun appears at its most extreme northerly position at sunrise on June 21 each year, giving us who live in the northern hemisphere our most hours of daylight and least hours of darkness. On this day, called the summer solstice, the sun rises higher and stays longer in our view of the sky than on any other day.
July 23. Above is the sun at its rising on July 23, a month after the longest day of the year. Already we can see that the sunrise is not so far to the left, that is, not so far toward the northeast.
August 25. Now past midsummer the sun at sunrise is even farther down the line from the northeast, approaching a full easterly position at sunrise.
September 9. With just two weeks to go before sunrise at the fall equinox on September 23, the sun has moved far to the right. The equinox is the date on which the sun rises due east, making the hours of daylight and darkness exactly equal. That will be the subject of a later astronomy lesson.
- Click here to read an article in Wikipedia about the solstice.
- Photos by Jack Howison. Click here to see all his sunrises.
- What do you think? Send us a letter to the editor.
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