November 3, 2023, ushers within the earliest solar midday – for the entire 12 months and for your entire globe – by the clock. Photo voltaic midday is a pure relatively than synthetic assemble, though our clocks and calendars measure its continuous shift all year long. Photo voltaic midday – aka noon – refers to that passing immediate when the sun reaches its highest level for the day, halfway between dawn and sundown. For those who reside alongside the middle line of your time zone, then solar midday – or noon – comes at 11:44 a.m. by your clock yearly in early November. For those who’re not in your time zone’s heart line – and most of us aren’t – solar midday occurs a bit earlier or later by your clock, relying in your offset out of your time zone’s heart line.
Obscure? Probably. However the shift in solar midday is tied to a phenomenon that many individuals world wide would possibly discover within the coming weeks. That’s, the earliest solar midday of the 12 months is a prelude to the 12 months’s earliest sundown within the Northern Hemisphere – and the 12 months’s earliest dawn within the Southern Hemisphere.
You thought the earliest sundown for the Northern Hemisphere got here on the December solstice? It doesn’t. It occurs effectively earlier than that solstice, for a motive that’s associated to the earliest solar midday on November 3.
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Earliest and newest solar noons, and the size of the day. The primary a number of days of November, from all over the place worldwide, the times (as measured from one solar midday to the following) are virtually precisely 24 hours in length. Thereafter, day by day, solar midday comes later and later by the clock, lessening the discrepancy between sun time and clock time. In the end – on December 25, 2023 – the sun and the clock agree with each other, with solar midday coming at 12 midday by the clock (for these on the heart line of a given time zone).
Though the sun and clock will agree on December 25, 2023, the length of the solar day – as measured from one solar midday to the following – will proceed to exceed 24 hours every day for one more six weeks.
Lastly, the newest solar midday will arrive on or close to February 11, at 12:14 p.m. by the clock (on the time zone heart line).
And, for everybody, all over the place worldwide, solar midday comes some half-hour earlier by the clock on November 3, 2023, than it is going to on February 11, 2024.
Need to know the clock time for solar midday (noon) at your location? Visit Sunrise Sunset Calendars, remembering to check the solar noon box.
Need to know the time distinction between sun and clock for any date? Go to AstroPixels.com and look under the equation of time column.
Photo voltaic midday and earliest sundown (and/or dawn). So … November 3, 2023, marks the earliest solar midday of the 12 months for the entire globe. What’s extra, residents on the Earth’s equator have their earliest dawn and sundown on November 3. That’s as a result of, on the equator, the sunlight hours stay just about the identical all year long – so the earliest dawn, earliest solar midday and earliest sundown all fall on the identical day.
Elsewhere – throughout the tropical and temperate regions of the world – the shortest interval of daylight occurs on the day of the winter solstice, and the longest interval of daylight on the summer time solstice. So for those who dwell close to the Arctic Circle, your earliest sundown doesn’t occur till across the December (winter) solstice; or for those who dwell close to the Antarctic Circle, your earliest dawn doesn’t happen till across the December (summer time) solstice.
That’s regardless of the earliest solar midday coming in early November all around the world.
Read more: December solstice starts shortest season
For those who dwell north of the equator however south of the Arctic Circle, your earliest sundown happens someplace between November 3, 2023, and December 21, 2023. Within the Northern Hemisphere, these residing nearer to the equator have an earlier date for his or her earliest sundown; and people lodging nearer to the Arctic Circle have a later date for his or her earliest sundown.
We give the approximate dates for the earliest sundown within the Northern Hemisphere:
15 degrees north latitude
Earliest sundown on or close to November 2330 degrees north latitude
Earliest sundown on or close to December 145 degrees north latitude
Earliest sundown on or close to December 1060 degrees north latitude
Earliest sundown on or close to December 17
Within the Southern Hemisphere, it’s your earliest dawn that takes place between November 3, 2023, and December 21, 2023. The nearer you reside to the equator, the sooner the date for the earliest dawn; and the nearer you reside to the Antarctic Circle, the later the date for the earliest dawn. As a result of comparable latitudes north/south of the equator have the identical approximate dates for earliest sundown/earliest dawn, the dates for the Southern Hemisphere’s earliest sunrises may be gleaned from the itemizing above.
Within the Northern Hemisphere, the newest dawn should wait until after the Northern Hemisphere’s December winter solstice; and within the Southern Hemisphere, it’s the newest sundown that should wait until after the Southern Hemisphere’s December summer time solstice. These residing nearer to the Arctic or Antarctic Circles have an earlier date for his or her newest dawn/newest sundown; and people lodging nearer to the Earth’s equator have a later date for his or her newest dawn/newest sundown. Listed here are the approximate dates for the Northern Hemisphere’s newest dawn/Southern Hemisphere’s newest sundown at varied latitudes:
60 levels latitude: December 27
45 levels latitude: January 2
30 levels latitude: January 11
15 levels latitude: January 23
Two causes account for the unequal size of the solar day over the 12 months. In the beginning, the lean of the Earth’s axis causes the solar day to be greater than 24 hours lengthy across the solstices but lower than 24 hours lengthy across the equinoxes. Nonetheless, Earth’s eccentric orbit performs a secondary position, both accentuating or lessening the impact. On the December solstice, the Earth is a few 3 million miles (5 million km) nearer to the sun, and transferring extra swiftly in its orbit, than on the June solstice. Subsequently, the longer-than-average solar day on the December solstice (24 hours + 30 seconds) outlasts the longer-than-average solar day on the June solstice (24 hours + 13 seconds).
Backside line: November 3 brings the 12 months’s earliest solar midday – that’s, earliest noon – by nature’s clock. It’s a harbinger of the Northern Hemisphere’s earliest sundown.
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