I’ve been looking up sunset times in Joshua Tree National Park. I found 4:34 pm, December 1, and 4:39 pm, December 21. It seems the sun would set earlier, not later, as we approach the solstice. Is there a bug in the program? I saw this on mobile and desktop.
Solstice corresponds to shortest day, not to earliest sunset. It also doesn’t correspond to latest sunrise - the sun continues to rise later and later until around Jan 5/6. It’s all a result of the equation of time, which captures the effects of the eccentricity of Earth’s orbit around the Sun and also the obliquity of the ecliptic.
No bug… it’s actually what happens.
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Thank you! I had a feeling I was on the edge of learning something new.
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