Why is sunset later in the south

This illustrates the geographical effect , which depends on the observer's latitude. Figure 8 and 8a below. The daily path of the Sun as seen from Hawai'i on the first day of spring, summer, fall, and winter. The Sun is above the horizon all day at the beginning of summer, barely touching the horizon at midnight. At the beginning of winter the Sun's path is entirely below the horizon. This latter situation is modified by the refraction of sunlight by the Earth's atmosphere which causes the Sun to appear a little higher at the horizon than it actually is.

In , this occurred at p. As Earth orbits the sun, its axis of rotation is tilted at an angle of We define sunset as the time the sun sinks below the horizon. The sun rises and sets farthest north at our summer solstice. The farther the sun sets from due west along the horizon, the shallower the angle of the setting sun. That translates to a longer duration for sunset at the solstice. While the summer solstice is the day of the year with the most daylight, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset do not occur on the summer solstice.

On Summer Solstice, you would see the Sun rise on your "horizon" at the eastern point of the longest track. It would follow the track high in your sky, and eventually set on the western horizon. It would be up for about 17 "hours", thus making summertime days long and warm. On the Winter Solstice, you would observe the Sun rising at the western end of the smallest track. It wouldn't rise high in the sky, and would be up for only about 6 or 7 hours, making your days short on daylight and cold.

At the Spring and the Fall equinoxes, the Sun would rise at the east end of the middle track and set at the west end. Build your own Sun Track Diorama What about the stars? The rising points of the stars don't change as much as the Sun's because they are so very far away. So the rising points of stars on the horizon were not as critical to ancient cultures.

However, the rising times of stars change by 4 minutes each day, so any particular star would rise at different times during the year. For about half the time, the star would rise during the daytime and thus be blocked by the huge light of our Sun. There was something called the "heliacal" or dawn rise of a star -- and this happened on only one day of the year.