The Sun

[john_miller]

Not the newspaper! This subject was broached on the Beeb boards (who still won't let me in) and a number of people seemed to be interested. I am sitting here looking outside at a weather that is reminding me that summer is a memory and autumn about to become one, it is cold and windy here, which we really haven't had since April. I have just looked, through google of course, at a table of earliest sunsets and latest sunrises for this coming winter. As I thought other readers of these boards might find it of interest I also looked up London (UK) and Amsterdam (both are identical). For me the earliest sunset is around December 5th while the latest sunrise is around January 3rd. For London the dates are November 30th and February 12th respectively. This illustrates the huge difference that the flattened globe shape of the earth makes to these dates as you approach the equator. I am about 100 miles south of latitude 45 N, the UK lies between 50 and 60 degrees N.
The table is on the web site of the US naval observatory. By entering co-ordinates of any place on the globe, or the nearest city, these times can be found for anywhere you may have an interest in, should anyone want to do their own research.

[john_miller]