Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Independence Day, Wednesday, July 4th.  Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 27 minutes, setting at 9:30.   The moon, 1 day past full, will rise at 10:02 this evening.  Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:03.

Today,  Independence Day the earth is at its greatest distance from the sun or about 94.5 million miles from the sun.  It doesn’t do much to weaken the strength of sunlight, as you will find out when you go to the beach, But, occurring in summer, makes summer the longest season by a several days over winter.  Our calendar tries to keep up with the seasonal or tropical year, while the earths revolution from its farthest or aphelion point to the next is slightly longer.  Back in 1776 at the founding of our country the earth was farthest from the sun on June 30th.  As we go more centuries into the future summer will get even a bit longer.  But remember the poor Aussies whose winter will also get longer.

Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The orbits of the inner planets. (P)erihelion – (A)phelion

Perihelion is the closest point in an orbit to the sun, while aphelion is the farthest.  The earth and Venus have the most circular orbits while Mars and Mercury have markedly elliptical orbits.