NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Shape of the Sun's daily motion
From: John Clements
Date: 2022 Feb 9, 12:04 -0800
From: John Clements
Date: 2022 Feb 9, 12:04 -0800
I think you’re asking about the shape of the sun’s path *when projected onto a flat plane*. That is: stand all day long with a flat window between you an the sun, and use a marker to trace the sun’s path on that window. Is that right?
It’s an interesting problem, but I’m not sure how useful the result is. First, it’s going to depend enormously on the plane of the window. Maybe you want it to be in the east-west plane? And… how should it be tipped? Perpendicular to the earth’s surface? Also, if you’re in a place on earth (say, Northern Hemisphere after the spring equinox), the sun will at some point pass out of the view of the window. Also, as the sun passes due east or due west, I think you’re going to get an infinitely long tail on your window. (okay, not infinitely long. But about 93 million miles long. That's pretty long.)
So: pretty sure it’s not an ellipse.
Apologies, of course, if I’ve misunderstood your question, or said something wrong.
John Clements
