Related papers: On times and shadows: the observational analemma

Earth's analemma is the lopsided figure eight marked out over a year by the position of the Sun in the sky observed at the same clock time each day. It shows how solar time deviates from clock time. The analemma's shape results from the…

It is well known that the length and orientation of a shadow cast by a vertical gnomon depends on the time of the day and on the season of the year. But it also depends on the latitude of the site of observation. During the equinoxes, the…

A didactic sequence of activities on some topics of Astronomy, related mainly with the length and orientation of shadows cast by a gnomon, the movement of shadows during daytime in different seasons of the year, and finding the true…

Sundials and gnomons pointing out dates and times are a beautiful reminder of how we understand the movement of the Sun and use it to structure day and year. They also encapsulate the basic astronomical knowledge and concepts of the…

The equation of time is fundamental for calculating the rising and setting times of the Sun. The concepts of sidereal and solar day and locak noon, we show how the length of the day depends on solar declination and Earth's orbit position,…

Among the first devices used to measure the time we find the sundials and the water-clocks, as told by Vitruvius in his book on the Architecture. The sundials work because of the shadows cast by a rod or pole, the gnomon, on their…

It is customary to employ a semi-spherical scale model to describe the apparent path of the Sun across the sky, whether it be its diurnal motion or its variation throughout the year. A flat surface and three bent semi-rigid wires…

A sunset over the sea surface offers the possibility to chronometrate a solar transit across the horizon. The vertical solar diameter is proportional to the duration of the sunset, the cosine of the azimuth and the cosine of the latitude of…

We express the position of the Sun in the sky as a function of time and the observer's geographic coordinates. Our method is based on applying rotation matrices to vectors describing points on the celestial sphere. We also derive direct…

The parallel globe is an old, very simple and ingenious device that, when systematically employed in astronomy classes, becomes a teaching tool with great potential. Properly oriented according to the local meridian, this instrument allows…

The Sun shows a wide range of temporal variations, from a few seconds to decades and even centuries, broadly classified into two classes short-term and Long-term. The solar dynamo mechanism is believed to be responsible for these global…

We present some theoretical results relevant to the direct dark matter detection experiments, paying particular attention to directional experiments, i.e. experiments in which, not only the energy but the direction of the recoiling nucleus…

Astronomical observations were used as a marker for time and the Calendar from ancient times. A more subtle calibration of epochs is thrown up by an observation of the position of the solstices and equinoxes, because these points shift in…

Young children, students, and adults may have alternative ideas about the motion of the Sun and stars as we observe them in the sky. However, a good understanding of this apparent motion is essential as a starting point to study more…

Temporal offsets between the time series of solar activity indicators provide important clues regarding the physical processes responsible for the cyclic variability in the solar atmosphere. Hysteresis patterns generated between any two…

Large scale shadows from buildings in a city play an important role in determining the environmental quality of public spaces. They can be both beneficial, such as for pedestrians during summer, and detrimental, by impacting vegetation and…

The diameter of the Sun has been measured using Baily's beads during central eclipses, observed with portable telescopes. A blend of tiny emission lines produced in the first several hundred kilometers above the photosphere gives a light…

The Earth's albedo is a fundamental climate parameter for understanding the radiation budget of the atmosphere. It has been traditionally measured from space platforms, but also from the ground for sixteen years from Big Bear Solar…

Solar astrometry deals with the accurate measumerent of the solar diameter, and in general with the measurement of the shape of the Sun. During the last decades several techniques have been developed to monitor the radius and the irradiance…

We proposed an analytical model for the calculus of illumination time of the Earth for any time of year and any latitude, this model assumes the obliquity of the ecliptic as constant, the light beams as parallels, the Earth as spherical,…