Originally Posted by
conspiratemus1
Yes, from mow until the summer solstice, the sun will be up in the evening a little longer every day. The shortest day is not until 21 Dec. but owing to the elliptical nature of the earth’s orbit, the apparent movement of the sun gets enough out of kilter with the clocks this time of year that the clock timing of sunrise, noon, and sunset gets shifted. By Christmas, you will notice the afternoon sun definitely lasting longer.
The downside for those who have to get up early is that latest sunrise doesn’t occur until about 10 Jan. So those post-New Year commutes make for awfully dark mornings.
This “time-shifting” has nothing to do with the seasons per se. It’s just the orientation of the ellipse happens to make the effect strongest in that portion of the orbit that we call December. “The equation of time.”
I thought I was the only one who knew or cared about this. I always get a small glimmer of hope when we have our earliest sunset, which now happens at about 4:08 in my neck of the woods.