I have what will probably turn out to be a dumb question. My house sits almost directly east – west at 35.3° N. This is well above the tropic of cancer. Therefore, the sun should never be north of my house – right. Not right – in the early morning and late evening the sun slants in the north windows. I am obviously misunderstanding something at a very basic level. Being an old man, I have learned enough to ask when you don’t know (grin) ---- hippypaul

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Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?

Well, it should never be due north, but it should rise in the east-northeast and set in the west-northwest, after the spring equinox and before the autumnal equinox -- the summery part of the year.

See NASA: Path of the sun.

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0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 ...

During the summer the further north you go the longer the hours of daylight are and the more the sun rises in the NE to NNE and sets in the NW to NNW. At midsummer above the Arctic Circle the sun doesn't set at all so at local 'midnight' it will be directly north. In my location at present the sun sets about 307 deg at 21.19 and rises about 53deg at 5.00am with very little actual darkness. At the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes (Equal day and night ~March 21/22 and September 21/22) sunrise is due East and sunset due West so the sun will not shine on the northern face of your house during winter when the days are shorter.

(Note to the purists - I know this is aproximate but a reasonable starting point for the discussion without overcomplicating things)

BTW - Welcome to the board hippypaul. The only dumb thing is not asking questions and you have come to the right place to get sensible answers.


Edit: corrected sunset/sunrise for my location

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By asking questions we sometimes get the wrong answers, from wrong answers we learn to ask the right questions.

Ok - so the sun at noon is always south of me - but it can rise and set north of me - the diagram really helped - and such a fast reply - Thanks very much - hippypaul

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Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?

Actually, the Sun is due north of your house once a day ... well, once a night, to be exact! 8)

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- Learn a lot teaching others.

Worried about an ATP accuracy aphorism?

hippypaul, welcome! Enjoyed the classical woodchuck!

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The sun's relative position in middle northern latitudes (such as Arkansas) is north at midnight (local standard time, give or take a bit, due to your position within your time zone), east at 6 a.m., south at noon, and west at 6 p.m. If sunrise occurs in the midnight-to-6 a.m. period, it will rise north of east, because that's where it is at that time. If sunrise occurs after 6 a.m., it will rise south of due east. If you have a 24-hour clock (one rotation of the hour hand in 24 hours), and aim midnight toward the north, the hour hand should point toward the sun's current relative location to you. With a 12-hour clock, you have to find the midpoint between noon and the current hour to achieve the same effect - and point 12 toward the south. This is all approximate, but is the way I remember where the sun should rise and set.

Once again: =D> =D> =D> =D>

I never would have even noticed that, let alone figured it out, without that comment!

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"I am Meteora, supreme goddess of weather" - Meteora, in The Unchained Goddess

One nice thing about being a meteorologist who also likes astronomy is that the sky is always interesting!