Latest sunrises for northern hemisphere
5 comments DownloadTonight is Saturday, Jan 03 2009
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Photo credit on left to Peter Bowers
If you like to sleep late but don’t want to miss the sunrise, this time of year should be your favorite. The latest sunrises of the year for mid-latitudes in the northern hemisphere are happening around now and will continue for another week. For those in Wichita, Kansas for example, the sunrise time for the next 8 mornings is at 7:44 a.m. this morning. Sleep on!
The December solstice always brings the shortest day. But the latest sunrises do not coincide with the day of least sunlight.
The main reason is that the Earth’s rotational axis is tilted to the plane of our orbit around the sun. A secondary reason is that the Earth’s orbit is not a perfect circle. Due to our eccentric orbit, Earth is traveling a little faster in orbit right now than it does in summer. Clock time gets a bit out of synch with sun time – by about the tune of 1/2 minute per day for several weeks around the winter solstice. For more information click here.
If you’re a skywatcher, you might know that this sequence of earliest sunset, shortest day, and latest sunrise never varies from year to year. For us at middle latitudes in the northern hemisphere, the earliest sunsets come in early December. The shortest day comes on the solstice around December 21. And the latest sunrises come in early January.
what will happen on Saturday night?
i was out in wappingers falls, new york between 11:30 pm and 12 a.m. heading west and saw a huge orange moon (i think) why was it so big and why did it just disappear? does it usually set this early in the winter?
i was out in wappingers falls, new york between 11:30 pm and 12 a.m. heading west and saw a huge orange moon (i think) why was it so big and why did it just disappear? does it usually set this early in the winter?
1.while earlist sunset, probebly, occures on winter solstice i.e. Dec,21.
2.your page loades very slow on the internet.
I have a question. Did Venus line up in the arc portion of the crescent moon a few nights ago. I was watching to see if it did, but either missed it or it didnt happen. A friend of mine said she saw it lined up in the crescent similar to the China flag, but the your website shows venus being close but below the arc on dec. 30