Sun On Horizon
January 15th, 2009 by Ken Mankoff
Does anyone know the scientific term for the path of the Sun as it travels toward the horizon or away from the horizon without crossing it? We no longer have sunset and sunrise.
We have hours of dusk and dawn but it isn’t easy to distinguish when one turns into the other. These are getting shorter as we head south faster than the Sun appears to be retreating as Earth moves toward a Northern Hemisphere Summer.
A month from when we are still down here it should start getting colder. On our return trip North the darkness should greet us much farther south than where we left it.
January 17th, 2009 at 12:59
I was going to say: Dusk – daa! but that’s not true, because that’s only correct if the sun is a few degrees below the horizon.
The phenomenon of the sun not setting in the polar summers is Midnight sun – the opposite of the Polar night, when the sun does not rise in the polar winters.
January 18th, 2009 at 16:33
Stars that do not touch the horizon (circumpolar) were considered by ancient Babylonian Astrologers as residing in the realm of immortals ;)
January 20th, 2009 at 19:21
I think in this case that the path of the Sun in general is called… the Sun Path. Really. :) It’s just that for where you are and the time of year, the Sun’s altitude is never less than 0 (=horizon). Sure looks pretty, in any case.