Empirical Earth · The Sky — Sun, Moon & Stars

The analemma

The claim

“The Sun just circles overhead on a flat plane.”

What is measured

Photograph the Sun at the same clock time all year and it traces a figure-eight, the analemma, written by Earth’s 23.4° tilt and elliptical orbit.

What would show this is wrong

the Sun, photographed at a fixed clock time across the year, tracing no figure-eight.

Sources

  1. NASA NSSDCA — Sun Fact Sheet. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/sunfact.html link
  2. The analemma & the equation of time. The Sun's annual figure-8 from axial tilt (23.4°) and orbital eccentricity; equation-of-time ≈ ±16 min. analemma · NOAA solar calculator . link
  3. The equation of time — its two causes. The Sun’s up-to-±16-minute lead/lag over clock time is the sum of an obliquity term (~±9.9 min, half-yearly) and an eccentricity term (~±7.7 min, yearl link
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