By Elliott Brack
Editor and publisher, GwinnettForum
JUNE 19, 2018 | One thing people around the entire world can count on: the world is orderly. We don’t have a playful God that lets the sun rise on one side today, and then on the other side tomorrow. Our physical world is predictable, unsurprising and stable.
No matter where you live, people smarter than I am can determine exactly what time the sun is going to rise in a particular area, and what time it will set. That’s wonderful! It means to me that indeed, the world is orderly. And that gives me solace and comfort.
That’s why I look forward to the summer solstice, when I see, feel and relish this world right down the street where I live.
It happens as I get up early to walk our dog, Hercules. (Ok, so he walks me!) As we move northeasterly up the street, the rising sun shines directly in our eyes down our street in Norcross. If we get up shortly past 6:30 a.m., we don’t get the full effect of that bright sunshine beaming directly down the street. At that time, and for a few minutes, the sun is directly bright on a sunny day, burning orange in our eyes. And then in less than a minute, the sun starts its southern direction, eventually moving in more than half a circle to settle in the southwest.
Of course, the summer solstice is the time with longest daylight of the year, the sun officially rising in Atlanta at 6:27 a.m., and setting at 8:51 p.m. That’s 14 hours and 23.58 minutes between sunrise and sundown that day.
By the compass on June 21, the sun is shining bright at 61 degrees northeasterly when rising, then moves clockwise until it sets at 299 degrees toward the west. Note how wide an arc that is, 238 degrees difference between morning and night!
At the spring and fall solstice, the variation between morning and night is near even. The spring solstice had 12.07 hours of daylight, and the fall solstice (September 22) will have 12:08 hours of daylight. Interestingly, the sun moves in about a half circle, traveling in March just 181 degrees, and in September 182 degrees.
Look at the winter solstice: On December 21, the sun will rise at 7:39 a.m. here, and go down at 5:32 p.m. That’s only 9 hours and 54.33 minutes of sunlight, or a total of 4.5 hours less sun hours than on the longest day. And yes, that is our shortest day.
All in all, or world is so predictable! That creates the comfort for me.
- Want to know more about all this? Go to “Time and Date”.
Trick question: when is the longest day? No, it’s not really on June 21, which has the longest amount of sunshine. Remember Daylight Savings Time? That means that the extra hour we get this year on November 4 when we “Fall Back” to Standard Time will mean that this one day will be 25 hours long.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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