Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Friday, March 20th.  The Sun will rise at 7:46.  It’ll be up for 12 hours and 8 minutes, setting at 7:55.  The Moon is new today, and won’t be visible.

The Arctic solar eclipse has just ended.  But there is one more event of note today.  At 6:44 p.m.  The Sun will cross the celestial equator heading northward, the projection of the Earth’s equator on the sky.  In doing that the season of spring will return to the northern hemisphere.  The Sun is already staying up for just over half the day.   That will increase to fifteen and a half hours by the summer solstice three months from now.  Not only will the Sun will be out longer, but it will rise higher in the sky, rising from 45 degrees altitude in the south at local noon to 69 degrees on June 21st.  If the sun stayed at this location it would get very uncomfortable with the heat.  As it is as the Sun is climbing down it will still get warmer.  Peak summer heat occurs about a month after the solstice.

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

Addendum

These are whole sky diagrams with the edge at the horizon.  The Sun’s motion is from left to right.  The Sun is plotted every 15 minutes.  The Sun’s motion is constant, however the projection causes squeezing of the positions near the zenith (center of the diagram) and stretching near the horizon.

The sun’s daily path through the sky from horizon to horizon on an equinox the first day of spring or autumn. Credit My LookingUp program.

The sun’s daily path through the sky from horizon to horizon on the first day of summer, the summer solstice. Credit My LookingUp program.