What a Difference Six Months Makes

ephemeris.jpg

A few years ago, I wrote the code for a sidebar widget that prints the solar ephemerides (daybreak, sunrise, transit, sunset, nightfall and the length of daylight hours) out on our website. Since yesterday was the shortest day of the year, I wondered how the data compare for the longest day of the year.

I took a screenshot of yesterday’s data and saved it as an image. Then, I monkeyed with my code to make the widget think it is June, 21, 2013, the longest day of the coming year. I got a screenshot of that data and merged it with the shortest day into the image above. The length of the day changes from just under ten hours to almost fourteen and a half hours – a net delta of 4 hours and 32 minutes.

We like our mild winters here but we love the summertime even more. We like the heat and the absence of the snowbird population that clogs the roads and supermarket aisles in the wintertime.

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