What is the altitude of the sun at solar noon in tampa, fl for each season?
Question:
Answer:
Winter solstice: 38° 36'
Spring/fall equinox: 62° 13'
Summer solstice: 85° 28
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/altaz.
I'll pick 28˚ N as the latitude (Egypt Lake) simply to have a round figure.
The north celestial pole is 28 ˚ above the North horizon.
The celestial equator is 90˚ from the pole. The total distance from North horizon to South horizon is 180˚.
This puts the equator 62˚ above the south horizon.
Declination is the "distance" from the celestial equator.
For the Sun:
Spring equinox, Declination = 0 (Sun is on the equator)
Therefore sun is 62˚ above the southern horizon.
Summer solstice: Declination is 23.45 N (north of the equator).
The sun is 62+23.45 = 85.45 degrees above the southern horizon.
Fall equinox Declination = 0 (same as Spring equinox)
Winter solstice, Declination is 23.45 S (South of the equator).
The Sun is 62 - 23.45 = 38.5 degrees above the southern horizon.
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