Anyone else notice that the sun is still sinking south ?

I was thinking that the sun reached it's highest point in July
and would start moving the other way in the sky. In June,
the sun moved across the sky in a more northerly plane. In
May it was even further north. In September the plane it's
skewing along on is still moving south. I'm noticing this
because I'm watching the shadows of the overhang of the
roof and the shadows are indicating the sun is still moving
in a southerly direction.

What's wrong with my thinking? I was thinking it would reach
it's peak in July or maybe August (when it reached it's highest
point) and then the shadows would start moving in the other
direction. The side of the house that I'm watching the shadows
on is the south side. I'm in Tampa, FL, and for some reason
it's stuck in my head that the sun should start to travel a plane
that is more northerly each day.

--
Jim Carlock
Post replies to the newsgroup.

I was wrong in the way I was thinking. I found a site explaining
the vernal equinox as being the a day when the length of night
is equal to the length of day. And it occurs around March 21st
every year. The summer solstice happens around June 22nd
each year. For some reason I was thinking along the lines that
August being the hottest days of the year represented the
month that the longest day of the year occured. I'm starting
to think now that August is hottest because the summer
gradually warms the ground and the rise in temp is felt because
of the heat already being in the ground. I'm not sure this is
correct and proper thinking, but the more I think about it...
I think the temp is low enough to not start slowing its rise in
temp each day.

So the way it looks, it'll be about September 21st or 22nd
where the sun will start making it's northerly track again. That
represents the autumnal equinox. On this day the day will be
equal in length to the night.

Thanks Jackie.

--
Jim Carlock
Post replies to the newsgroup.


"J. Davidson" wrote:
Isn't the vernal equinox when it starts the southerly path?
(actually when we start the northerly path I guess.) I think that was in
June.
Jackie
"Jim Carlock" wrote:
Anyone else notice that the sun is still sinking south ?

I was thinking that the sun reached it's highest point in July
and would start moving the other way in the sky. In June,
the sun moved across the sky in a more northerly plane. In
May it was even further north. In September the plane it's
skewing along on is still moving south. I'm noticing this
because I'm watching the shadows of the overhang of the
roof and the shadows are indicating the sun is still moving
in a southerly direction.

What's wrong with my thinking? I was thinking it would reach
it's peak in July or maybe August (when it reached it's highest
point) and then the shadows would start moving in the other
direction. The side of the house that I'm watching the shadows
on is the south side. I'm in Tampa, FL, and for some reason
it's stuck in my head that the sun should start to travel a plane
that is more northerly each day.

--
Jim Carlock
Post replies to the newsgroup.

The autumnal equinox is when the sun crosses the equator. It'll still
be heading south until late December, then it will start heading
north, cross the equator again in late March and peak on it's
northerly track in late June when it starts heading south again.

On Fri, 03 Sep 2004 00:19:29 GMT, "Jim Carlock"
wrote:

....

So the way it looks, it'll be about September 21st or 22nd
where the sun will start making it's northerly track again. That
represents the autumnal equinox. On this day the day will be
equal in length to the night.

Thanks Jackie.

Scott Anderson got it right. See his reply.

J


Jim Carlock wrote:
=

Anyone else notice that the sun is still sinking south ?
=

I was thinking that the sun reached it's highest point in July
and would start moving the other way in the sky. In June,
the sun moved across the sky in a more northerly plane. In
May it was even further north. In September the plane it's
skewing along on is still moving south. I'm noticing this
because I'm watching the shadows of the overhang of the
roof and the shadows are indicating the sun is still moving
in a southerly direction.
=

What's wrong with my thinking? I was thinking it would reach
it's peak in July or maybe August (when it reached it's highest
point) and then the shadows would start moving in the other
direction. The side of the house that I'm watching the shadows
on is the south side. I'm in Tampa, FL, and for some reason
it's stuck in my head that the sun should start to travel a plane
that is more northerly each day.
=

--
Jim Carlock
Post replies to the newsgroup.

-- =

Celestial Habitats by J. Kolenovsky
2003 Honorable Mention Award, Keep Houston Beautiful
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.celestialhabitats.com - business. Quoted by the Ho=
uston
Chronicle Lazy Gardener as 1 of 7 best gardening websites in Houston.
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.hal-pc.org/~garden/personal.html - personal

Boy, I'm way off in thinking that the sun travels along the
equator and the position of the earth is what is changing.
I've got to rethink everything and start reading more stuff on
this topic. It's been ages since I've looked into this...
Well here goes...

For some reason I was under the impression that the
earth rotated on an axis and that as the earth rotated
around the sun, that the equator represented the closest
part of the earth to the sun. This means that North Pole
represents one point of the axis and the South Pole
represents the the other point of the axis. The axis does
not noticeably change, but I'm thinking that it does
change and would be noticeable if you could live 1000
or maybe 10,000 years.

Okay, my question is this... if you live on the equator,
are the days and nights equal every day of the year?
http://puuoo.submm.caltech.edu/outre...ay/sunrise.htm

If the sun is always directly above the equator, and the
equator represents the closest portion of the earth to the
sun, how does the sun cross the equator? You lost me
with your statement. I think you meant to say something
else.

http://www.equinox-and-solstice.com/..._solstice.html

The link above indicates that the longest day of the year falls
on or about June 22 (at least for the northern hemisphere). It
should be December 22 for the southern hemisphere. So with
Dec 22 being the longest day for the southern hemisphere and
Dec 22 being the shortest day for the northern hemisphere...
does any of this matter on the equator, being that on the
equator, you'd get 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night
each and every day of the year, because you'd be on the
closest spot on earth to the sun, each and every day of the
year, not taking mountains and depressions into consideration.

Being that the earth rotates on an axis, the autumnal equinox
I think is going to vary slightly for every every position away
from the equator? I think that's the lattitude.

There is a great link here that talks about how the distance of
the earth from the sun never goes past 3% or 4% and states
that the earth is more circular in orbit than elliptical. I used to
think that the distance from the sun is what caused seasons
when I was a kid. That's not true. The link below indicates
that the earth is farthest from the sun on or about July 4th.
Very interesting coincidence!
http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/20....asp?list17366

Thanks for the comment, I think I know what you're trying
to say, but you are just not saying it correctly. ;-)

--
Jim Carlock
Post replies to the newsgroup.

"Scott Anderson" wrote:
The autumnal equinox is when the sun crosses the equator. It'll still
be heading south until late December, then it will start heading
north, cross the equator again in late March and peak on it's
northerly track in late June when it starts heading south again.

On Fri, 03 Sep 2004 00:19:29 GMT, "Jim Carlock" wrote:
....

So the way it looks, it'll be about September 21st or 22nd
where the sun will start making it's northerly track again. That
represents the autumnal equinox. On this day the day will be
equal in length to the night.

Thanks Jackie.

the earth revolves around the sun once per year (imagine a circle around
the sun). the earth also rotates on it's axis (the Poles) once per day.
[fast] But this axis is not perpendicular to the 'circle' of earth's
orbit around the sun. so...

visualize that the circular around the sun is "horizontal". lets choose
our vantage along this circle so that the earth's axis is now tilted at
one extreme when we see the earth at the leftmost position on this
circle. And lets say that teh north pole is tilted toward the sun.
(therefore teh south pole is tilted away from teh sun)

visualize those fast daily revolutoins. notice that teh top of the earth
(north) is predominantly exposed to sunlight. It's summer. :-)

eventaully, 6 months later, the earth is on the oppostie side of it's
orbit (but it's axis ALWAYS remains tilted exactly same angle) So now
the south pole sees a lot of sunlight. and so, it's winter



the equator.
visualize your self at one dot on the equator. say you're on the
nightitnme side of earth. as earth rotates to give you dawn, you swing
around and i think you see the sun from your south. you should see it
from the south all day.

6 mo later you should see the sun from the north (all day)

Yes, days and nights are always the same (almost) on the equator. But
the sun is not always directly overhead on the equator. It's only
directly overhead on the spring and autumn equinoxes. Any other time
it appears to be swinging north and south between the tropics.

Technically, the earth and sun really aren't tilting north and south
each year. The earth rotates at an angle relative to the plane of it's
orbit. The poles don't rotate around the sun, rather they stay pointed
in the same direction, no matter where the earth is in it's orbit. In
June, the north pole is pointed a little bit towards the sun and it's
the northern hemisphere that gets longer days. In December, the Earth
has gone 180 degrees around it's orbit, but because the poles don't
rotate, they are still pointed in the same direction and now the south
pole is pointed towards the sun and it's the southern hemisphere that
gets longer days. From the point of view of an observer on the earth,
this causes the path of the sun to swing north and south over the
course of the year as the planet swings around it's orbit. There's an
illustration of this he

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/fsd/astro/season.htm

And an explanation he

http://www.synapses.co.uk/astro/sunpath.html



On Fri, 03 Sep 2004 02:18:00 GMT, "Jim Carlock"
wrote:

....

Okay, my question is this... if you live on the equator,
are the days and nights equal every day of the year?
http://puuoo.submm.caltech.edu/outre...ay/sunrise.htm

If the sun is always directly above the equator, and the
equator represents the closest portion of the earth to the
sun, how does the sun cross the equator? You lost me
with your statement. I think you meant to say something
else.

http://www.equinox-and-solstice.com/..._solstice.html

The link above indicates that the longest day of the year falls
on or about June 22 (at least for the northern hemisphere). It
should be December 22 for the southern hemisphere. So with
Dec 22 being the longest day for the southern hemisphere and
Dec 22 being the shortest day for the northern hemisphere...
does any of this matter on the equator, being that on the
equator, you'd get 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night
each and every day of the year, because you'd be on the
closest spot on earth to the sun, each and every day of the
year, not taking mountains and depressions into consideration.

Being that the earth rotates on an axis, the autumnal equinox
I think is going to vary slightly for every every position away
from the equator? I think that's the lattitude.

There is a great link here that talks about how the distance of
the earth from the sun never goes past 3% or 4% and states
that the earth is more circular in orbit than elliptical. I used to
think that the distance from the sun is what caused seasons
when I was a kid. That's not true. The link below indicates
that the earth is farthest from the sun on or about July 4th.
Very interesting coincidence!
http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/20....asp?list17366

Thanks for the comment, I think I know what you're trying
to say, but you are just not saying it correctly. ;-)

"Jim Carlock" wrote in news:svQZc.7263$Of3.7205
@tornado.tampabay.rr.com:

Boy, I'm way off in thinking that the sun travels along the
equator and the position of the earth is what is changing.
I've got to rethink everything and start reading more stuff on
this topic. It's been ages since I've looked into this...
Well here goes...

For some reason I was under the impression that the
earth rotated on an axis and that as the earth rotated
around the sun, that the equator represented the closest
part of the earth to the sun. This means that North Pole
represents one point of the axis and the South Pole
represents the the other point of the axis. The axis does
not noticeably change, but I'm thinking that it does
change and would be noticeable if you could live 1000
or maybe 10,000 years.

The earth does rotate on an axis, and the axis does wobble a bit (I think
the wobble is called precession or procession or something like that). The
band perpendicular to the axis of rotation and intersecting the earth's
center is the equator. Meanwhile the earth is orbiting the sun. The
orbital plane is tilted something like 23.5 degrees from the plane of the
equator or rotational plane. The orbital plane is also known as the plane
of the ecliptic.

Okay, my question is this... if you live on the equator,
are the days and nights equal every day of the year?
http://puuoo.submm.caltech.edu/outre...ay/sunrise.htm

I don't think this strictly true, athougth I think day and night could very
close in duration at the equator. Atmospheric effects aside, for the sake
of argument say a day is exactly 24 hours. This means the earth makes a
360 degree rotation in 24 hours. However, at same time, the earth is
moving in an elliptical orbit that isn't parallel to the plane of rotation.

If the sun is always directly above the equator, and the
equator represents the closest portion of the earth to the
sun, how does the sun cross the equator? You lost me
with your statement. I think you meant to say something
else.

I don't think the first two are true, but I'm too tired to think about it.
The sun crosses the equator because the plane of the eclipitic is not
parallel to the earth's rotational plane.

http://www.equinox-and-solstice.com/..._solstice.html

The link above indicates that the longest day of the year falls
on or about June 22 (at least for the northern hemisphere). It
should be December 22 for the southern hemisphere. So with
Dec 22 being the longest day for the southern hemisphere and
Dec 22 being the shortest day for the northern hemisphere...
does any of this matter on the equator, being that on the
equator, you'd get 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night
each and every day of the year, because you'd be on the
closest spot on earth to the sun, each and every day of the
year, not taking mountains and depressions into consideration.

You get your equinoxes when the plane of the ecliptic intersects the
rotational plane, i.e. when the difference is 0 degrees. At the points
where the earth is at +/- 23.5 degrees you get your solistices.

Being that the earth rotates on an axis, the autumnal equinox
I think is going to vary slightly for every every position away
from the equator? I think that's the lattitude.

There is a great link here that talks about how the distance of
the earth from the sun never goes past 3% or 4% and states
that the earth is more circular in orbit than elliptical. I used to

At the "astronomical" distances involved, saying the orbit is nearly
circular is only useful for lay people with nothing to quibble about. At
any rate if you are talking about the 'closest point', and you're saying
the orbit is circular, then all points are relatively equidistant.

think that the distance from the sun is what caused seasons
when I was a kid. That's not true. The link below indicates
that the earth is farthest from the sun on or about July 4th.
Very interesting coincidence!
http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/20....asp?list17366

or they fudged the data just so they could say that. Or the Continental
Congress decided "man it's too hot for this, let's declare independence and
get out of here." Conspiratorically, it makes sense, Ben Franklin and TJ
more likely than not knowing about such things picked the day the earth was
farthest away to declare being farthest away from England, i.e.
independent.

Thanks for the comment, I think I know what you're trying
to say, but you are just not saying it correctly. ;-)

Jim Carlock, I think the easiest way to visualize this is to do it yourself.
Don't rely on some word description of what happens or you won't understand
it, because it's not really an intuitive concept. You and a stick are going
to orbit the sun. Put a chair in the middle of a room. That is the sun. Now
pick a side of the room and tilt a stick relative to that side. (make it
tilt so that the upper part of the stick is further to the left than the
lower part). Be sure that you know the orientation - in other words, if the
stick is pointing leftward toward the eastern wall of the room, it must
ALWAYS point to the eastern wall, no matter what you are doing. Now you
are going to slowly walk around the chair in the middle of the room. If you
keep the stick always tilting in that same direction relative to the one
wall of the room, you will find as you walk around "the sun" that the upper
part of the stick will either be pointing toward the sun (summer in the
northern hemisphere), sideways relative to the sun (spring or fall), or
pointing away from the sun - (winter in the northern hemisphere). If you
were able to find a ball with a stick pointing out of either end and did
this same thing, you would have a crystal clear understanding of why the
angle of the sun changes from season to season throughout the year, and even
day to day - and also, why the days and nights are of equal length
year-round at the equator - but ONLY at the equator. Incidentally, lots of
scientists are curious as to why the earth has a tilt. Some have speculated
that an enormous collision - say with another planet or a very large moon -
knocked it on its side, so to speak.
"Jim Carlock" wrote in message
.. .
Boy, I'm way off in thinking that the sun travels along the
equator and the position of the earth is what is changing.
I've got to rethink everything and start reading more stuff on
this topic. It's been ages since I've looked into this...
Well here goes...

For some reason I was under the impression that the
earth rotated on an axis and that as the earth rotated
around the sun, that the equator represented the closest
part of the earth to the sun. This means that North Pole
represents one point of the axis and the South Pole
represents the the other point of the axis. The axis does
not noticeably change, but I'm thinking that it does
change and would be noticeable if you could live 1000
or maybe 10,000 years.

Okay, my question is this... if you live on the equator,
are the days and nights equal every day of the year?
http://puuoo.submm.caltech.edu/outre...ay/sunrise.htm

If the sun is always directly above the equator, and the
equator represents the closest portion of the earth to the
sun, how does the sun cross the equator? You lost me
with your statement. I think you meant to say something
else.

http://www.equinox-and-solstice.com/..._solstice.html

The link above indicates that the longest day of the year falls
on or about June 22 (at least for the northern hemisphere). It
should be December 22 for the southern hemisphere. So with
Dec 22 being the longest day for the southern hemisphere and
Dec 22 being the shortest day for the northern hemisphere...
does any of this matter on the equator, being that on the
equator, you'd get 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night
each and every day of the year, because you'd be on the
closest spot on earth to the sun, each and every day of the
year, not taking mountains and depressions into consideration.

Being that the earth rotates on an axis, the autumnal equinox
I think is going to vary slightly for every every position away
from the equator? I think that's the lattitude.

There is a great link here that talks about how the distance of
the earth from the sun never goes past 3% or 4% and states
that the earth is more circular in orbit than elliptical. I used to
think that the distance from the sun is what caused seasons
when I was a kid. That's not true. The link below indicates
that the earth is farthest from the sun on or about July 4th.
Very interesting coincidence!
http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/20....asp?list17366

Thanks for the comment, I think I know what you're trying
to say, but you are just not saying it correctly. ;-)

--
Jim Carlock
Post replies to the newsgroup.

"Scott Anderson" wrote:
The autumnal equinox is when the sun crosses the equator. It'll still
be heading south until late December, then it will start heading
north, cross the equator again in late March and peak on it's
northerly track in late June when it starts heading south again.

On Fri, 03 Sep 2004 00:19:29 GMT, "Jim Carlock" wrote:
...

So the way it looks, it'll be about September 21st or 22nd
where the sun will start making it's northerly track again. That
represents the autumnal equinox. On this day the day will be
equal in length to the night.

Thanks Jackie.

Scott, thank you for the 2 excellent links explaining this. Especially
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/fsd/astro/season.htm as a visual one.

J =

-- =

Celestial Habitats by J. Kolenovsky
2003 Honorable Mention Award, Keep Houston Beautiful
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.celestialhabitats.com - business. Quoted by the Ho=
uston
Chronicle Lazy Gardener as 1 of 7 best gardening websites in Houston.
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.hal-pc.org/~garden/personal.html - personal

"Jim Carlock" wrote in message . com...


So you slept through astronomy 101?


J. Del Col

Thanks... I see where my line of thinking was slightly off.

I will still argue that the sun does not move over the equator.
:-)

I can see where my line of thinking was wrong about the
equator being the closest point. I just can't pinpoint or explain
it right at the moment. I'm currently not seeing the equator as
being a plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation.

I do see the northern hemisphere getting closer to the sun
during the summer, thus producing summer in June/July/Aug.

I see the southern hemisphere getting closer to the sun
during our winter months.

So I'm imagining the earth's spin now, on a 23 degree axis...
but I ask myself 23 degrees from what, and I'm I start to
form a plane that involves the earths yearly revolving.
And the 23 degrees must be in relation to that plane, and
simplifying it to exclude minor nuisances where the earth
wobbles off of that plane. I'm not sure that this is correct,
but it's what I'm working off of right at the moment...

But this is leading along the lines that direct east is visible
when you are on the equator and you watch the sun start
to rise. That would be east. West being the point at which
the sun sets on the equator. Anywhere else in the northern
or southern hemispheres, the direction of rising and setting
is not directly east, but would be southeasterly if it's summer
and you're in the northern hemisphere and then northeasterly
in the winter for the same location... My imagination starts
to fail... but I think that's more proper than saying that the
sun moves over the equator... providing it's correct.

It's not the sun that is moving over the equator, it's the plane
of the equator, which is created by the spin of the earth that
is shifting in relation to the sun... ???

Now moving along in this line of thinking... there are seasons
when you are in the northern hemisphere and there are seasons
when you are in the southern hemisphere... but if you are on
the equator, there are no seasons. :-) I think that is correct.
Taking out all the extraneous variables, it would be correct to
state that days are equal in length to the nights on the equator
at any given instant of the year. And I'm drawing the equator
in this manner. Salty Thumb explained the equator as being
perpendicular to the axis that the earth rotates upon. I'm
having problems seeing it in this fashion and it's easier for me
to view it by thinking of it in relation to the lengths of day and
night being equal. And while there is a vernal equinox and
an autumnal equinox where the length of the day is the same
as the length of the night (and this only happens if you are
NOT on the equator), those represent the exceptions to the
rule about the equator. Because for two days of the year,
there is that exception to the rule about the equators position.
So if you change the rule to read that the equator is drawn
if the previous day was equal in length to the previous night's
duration, there you will get a more substantial equation for
drawing the equator. I could be wrong but my beautiful
world will be destroyed if I am gulp.

And I keep asking myself what is the signifigance of the
length of the days being equal to length of the nights all
year long... and what initially jumps into my head is that
the earth is closest to the sun at that point, and a few
things run through my head... where I throw that idea
out and several other ideas run through my head... along
the lines that if that position on the earth is closest to the
sun at let's say 12o'clock high noon at that position on
the earth... this could account for the longer days in the
northern hemisphere. It's throwing my head through
some loops though... LOL

I've thought too much on it and I have to get some other
stuff done... it's been a pleasure thinking about it and I've
got a much better grasp on why the sun is sinking south.

Thanks to everyone! And I will argue with Scott (et al)
that the sun is not the thing moving that is causing the sun
to sink south. ;-) I can see where it can be thought of as
such in an abstract kind of way, and I now know where
my a couple of my ideas were a little off... and perhaps
some of them still are... I have to stop thinking about
for now though. g

--
Jim Carlock
Post replies to the newsgroup.


"Scott Anderson" wrote:
Yes, days and nights are always the same (almost) on the equator. But
the sun is not always directly overhead on the equator. It's only
directly overhead on the spring and autumn equinoxes. Any other time
it appears to be swinging north and south between the tropics.

Technically, the earth and sun really aren't tilting north and south
each year. The earth rotates at an angle relative to the plane of it's
orbit. The poles don't rotate around the sun, rather they stay pointed
in the same direction, no matter where the earth is in it's orbit. In
June, the north pole is pointed a little bit towards the sun and it's
the northern hemisphere that gets longer days. In December, the Earth
has gone 180 degrees around it's orbit, but because the poles don't
rotate, they are still pointed in the same direction and now the south
pole is pointed towards the sun and it's the southern hemisphere that
gets longer days. From the point of view of an observer on the earth,
this causes the path of the sun to swing north and south over the
course of the year as the planet swings around it's orbit. There's an
illustration of this he

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/fsd/astro/season.htm

And an explanation he

http://www.synapses.co.uk/astro/sunpath.html



On Fri, 03 Sep 2004 02:18:00 GMT, "Jim Carlock"
wrote:

....

Okay, my question is this... if you live on the equator,
are the days and nights equal every day of the year?
http://puuoo.submm.caltech.edu/outre...ay/sunrise.htm

If the sun is always directly above the equator, and the
equator represents the closest portion of the earth to the
sun, how does the sun cross the equator? You lost me
with your statement. I think you meant to say something
else.

http://www.equinox-and-solstice.com/..._solstice.html

The link above indicates that the longest day of the year falls
on or about June 22 (at least for the northern hemisphere). It
should be December 22 for the southern hemisphere. So with
Dec 22 being the longest day for the southern hemisphere and
Dec 22 being the shortest day for the northern hemisphere...
does any of this matter on the equator, being that on the
equator, you'd get 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night
each and every day of the year, because you'd be on the
closest spot on earth to the sun, each and every day of the
year, not taking mountains and depressions into consideration.

Being that the earth rotates on an axis, the autumnal equinox
I think is going to vary slightly for every every position away
from the equator? I think that's the lattitude.

There is a great link here that talks about how the distance of
the earth from the sun never goes past 3% or 4% and states
that the earth is more circular in orbit than elliptical. I used to
think that the distance from the sun is what caused seasons
when I was a kid. That's not true. The link below indicates
that the earth is farthest from the sun on or about July 4th.
Very interesting coincidence!
http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/20....asp?list17366

Thanks for the comment, I think I know what you're trying
to say, but you are just not saying it correctly. ;-)

"Jim Carlock" writes in article dated Fri, 03 Sep 2004 02:18:00 GMT:
Okay, my question is this... if you live on the equator,
are the days and nights equal every day of the year?
http://puuoo.submm.caltech.edu/outre...ay/sunrise.htm

Yes.

If the sun is always directly above the equator,

It isn't. The Earth revolves around an axis that goes through the Sun. The
Earth rotates around a a different axis that goes through the north and
south poles. If these 2 axes were parallel, the Sun would appear to be
always above the equator, but they aren't. They differ by about 23 degrees.

http://www.equinox-and-solstice.com/..._solstice.html

The link above indicates that the longest day of the year falls
on or about June 22 (at least for the northern hemisphere). It
should be December 22 for the southern hemisphere. So with
Dec 22 being the longest day for the southern hemisphere and
Dec 22 being the shortest day for the northern hemisphere...
does any of this matter on the equator, being that on the
equator, you'd get 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night
each and every day of the year, because you'd be on the
closest spot on earth to the sun, each and every day of the
year, not taking mountains and depressions into consideration.

It's not the distance to the sun that's important but the angle that the
light hits the earth. The closer you get to perpendicular, the more light
per unit area you get. Even though the equator gets only 12 hours of
daylight, on the equinox it is more intense than on the solistice.

Being that the earth rotates on an axis, the autumnal equinox
I think is going to vary slightly for every every position away
from the equator? I think that's the lattitude.

The distance from the equator is proportional to the latitude, but the
equinox is a single moment that happens twice a year.

There is a great link here that talks about how the distance of
the earth from the sun never goes past 3% or 4% and states
that the earth is more circular in orbit than elliptical. I used to
think that the distance from the sun is what caused seasons
when I was a kid. That's not true. The link below indicates
that the earth is farthest from the sun on or about July 4th.
Very interesting coincidence!
http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/20....asp?list17366

Another intersting area -- which is what I thought this thread would be
about when I read the subject -- is where the sun sets. If you're north of
the tropic of cancer, the sun will appear to be south of you at high noon
every day. But not at sunset! During the summer, the sun can set in the
northwest. The pathological case of this is if you're on the Arctic circle
on June 21, the sun appears to bump the horizon (set and then rise) at
midnight. And it bumps it in a spot due north of you!

-- spud_demon -at- thundermaker.net
The above may not (yet) represent the opinions of my employer.

Wait a minute. Are you guys saying that Earth isn't flat?

"Jim Carlock" in news:0C%Zc.7359$Of3.4509
@tornado.tampabay.rr.com:

I'm currently not seeing the equator as
being a plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation.

get a ball. put a 'belt' of masking tape around it. emulate th motion of
the earth.