Sun Path SimulatorSee the Sun's arc over any place, on any day of the year.
June 21 at 41° north.It rises in the northeast and sets in the northwest.
Drag the sphere to turn it. The part of each path below the ground is the Sun's night. The faint paths are the two solstices and the equinox. Time here is the Sun's own: noon is when it is highest, which can differ from the clock by an hour or more.
The Sun's path is the arc it traces across your sky each day. It rises in the east and sets in the west, but where exactly, and how high it climbs, depend on your latitude and the date.
Try this.
- Choose New York and compare the June and December solstices. Where does the Sun rise on each?
- Choose the Equator and an equinox. Where is the Sun at noon?
- Choose the North Pole and the June solstice, then play the day. What does the Sun do?
- Choose Sydney. In which direction does the Sun lie at noon? Why is that different from New York?
See the Sun on your own windows.
Sol works out the hours of direct sun on each side of a building, in your city, through the year.
What's happening.
Does the Sun always rise in the east?
Only on the two equinoxes does it rise due east and set due west, nearly everywhere on Earth. In summer it rises north of east and sets north of west, and in winter it rises south of east and sets south of west (in the Northern Hemisphere).
How high does the Sun get at noon?
Take 90 degrees and subtract the gap between your latitude and the Sun's declination, which runs from 23.4 degrees north in June to 23.4 degrees south in December. In New York, at 40.7 degrees north, that gives 73 degrees in June and 26 degrees in December.
Is the Sun directly overhead at noon?
Only between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, and only on one or two days a year at each place. Everywhere else it never gets there.
Why is the Sun in the north at noon in Australia?
South of the tropics, the Sun's path lies to the north. Houses in Sydney get their sun on north-facing windows, the opposite of houses in New York.
Where does the Sun never set?
North of the Arctic Circle in June, and south of the Antarctic Circle in December. At the poles, the Sun circles the horizon for days on end, rising and sinking only slowly.
Is solar noon at 12:00?
Rarely. Solar noon is when the Sun is highest. Time zones, daylight saving time and the shape of Earth's orbit can move it by an hour or more from 12:00 on the clock.
Common mix-ups.
Only around the equinoxes. In New York on the June solstice, it rises about 32 degrees north of east. Compare the paths in the simulator.
Outside the tropics, it never is. In London it reaches about 62 degrees at the very highest.
South of the tropics, it lies to the north at noon. In the tropics, it can be either, depending on the date.
A clock's noon and the Sun's noon are rarely the same moment. Madrid's Sun is highest at about 2:20 PM in July.
For teachers.
Grades 3 to 8. 15 to 25 minutes. Students need no account, and the page collects nothing about them.
Standards
- 5-ESS1-2
- Show daily patterns in the length and direction of shadows
- 1-ESS1-1
- Describe patterns of the Sun's motion that can be predicted
- 1-ESS1-2
- Relate the amount of daylight to the time of year
Discussion questions, with answers
- How high does the Sun get on the June solstice at the Tropic of Cancer?
- 90 degrees: directly overhead.
- On which dates does the Sun rise due east?
- Around the equinoxes, March 20 and September 22.
- Why are the December paths in New York short and low?
- The north leans away from the Sun, so the Sun stays low and is up for only about nine hours.
- What does the Sun do at the North Pole on the equinox?
- It circles along the horizon, half above it, for about a day.
Embed it in your class page
Paste this into Google Classroom, Canvas, Schoology or your own site.
<iframe src="https://initial.app/embed/sun-path" title="Sun Path Simulator" width="100%" height="760" style="border:0" loading="lazy" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p><a href="https://initial.app/sun-path">Sun Path Simulator</a> from Initial</p>Keep exploring.
Shadow Simulator
Watch a shadow swing and stretch through the day, and trace a sundial on the ground.
Seasons Simulator
Move Earth around the Sun, change its tilt, and watch the days and the heat follow.
Day and Night Simulator
Spin Earth and see where it is day and night right now, on a globe and a map.