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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / After the Winter Solstice, why does the time of sunrise not get earlier?
« on: 18/01/2020 19:03:41 »
I always presumed that after the winter solstice the time of sunrise would start moving earlier (and the location would move further north). However, when I started tracking the daily solar and lunar events, I found that after the solstice the time of sunrise actually drifts two minutes later over the next 20 days and does not become earlier for nearly a month. So for my location (the northwest corner of Virginia, US), sunrise on 21 December 2019 was 07:27:13 at 120.0°. On 1 January 2020, it was at 07:30:58 at 119.4°, nearly 2.5 minutes later. On 15 Jan. it was 07:29:35 at 116.9°. Today (18 Jan) it is 07:28:24 at 116.1°. Given that the time of sunrise is determined by the movements of the earth relative to the sun, how is this possible? Sunset does move later starting very soon after the solstice.
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