Sun Path

Walk through time

The four turnings drift. Earth's tilt creeps by a fraction of a degree each millennium, so the spot where the solstice sun breaks the horizon slides along it. Pick a monument and walk the years — watch the sun pull away from where its builders aimed. (At the equinox they all agree: due east and due west, within two degrees.)

A calendar of turnings

The four hinges of the year, each marked across cultures by walks, processions, and gatherings.

The sun's figure of eight

Stand at solar noon every day for a year and trace where the sun is. The shape it draws is the analemma — a slow, elegant figure-of-eight written by Earth's tilted, elliptical orbit.

How long the dark lasts

Every section above asks what the sun does. This one asks what its absence gives you: the hours of true dark — the sun a full 18° below the horizon, deep enough for the faintest stars. At the equator that is the same length every night of the year. Further north it swings, and past about 48½° it stops coming at all for part of the summer.

Where dawn comes from

At the equator the sun rises within 23½° of due east all year. The further from the equator, the wider its swing — until at high latitudes there are months when it never rises at all.

Walk to the sun

Tomorrow vs today

Around the equinoxes, the day grows or shrinks by 2–3 minutes every 24 hours. Around the solstices, almost nothing — solstice is Latin for "the sun stands still."

If you're walking a pilgrimage stage, The Light Budget turns this into a usable answer — pick a route, set a pace, see whether today's light holds.

The Moon Path shows where the moon stands at any coord — phase, tide curve, lunar standstill — a companion instrument for night walks and coastal stages.