1. . Similar to the polar sun-path diagrams, somebody takes pictures of the sky and starts collecting the data regarding the position of the sun quantized by the azimuthal and altitude of the sun. Now the azimuthal values are plotted along the X-axis and the altitude values are plotted along the Y-axis for different parts of the day.
2. Now, we transition to plotting those points for the two rays onto our sun path chart. And so, here we have our sun path. It's again, I'm just using it for State College. You could use it for your location, in which case, the times at which you're actually going to be shadowing each other are going to be different.

• Sun Path Polar Chart Printable
• Sun Path Polar Chart
• Polar Area Chart
• Polar Chart Type

Want to know where the sun is for today's date and at the present moment for the selected location? Find Now Please scroll the yellow dot on the time bar above the map from left to right to see the exact sun path.

The map shows day and night on Earth and the positions of the Sun (subsolar point) and the Moon (sublunar point) right now.

UTC time = Thursday, 10 December 2020, 12:04:00.

Jump to: -4 weeks | -1 day | -12 hours | -6 hours | -1 hour | -10 minutes | Now | +10 minutes | +1 hour | +6 hours | +12 hours | +1 day | +4 weeks

March equinox | June solstice | September equinox | December solstice

= The Sun's position directly overhead (zenith) in relation to an observer.

= The Moon's position at its zenith in relation to an observer (Moon phase is not shown).

= Civil Twilight (lightest shade)

= Nautical Twilight

= Astronomical Twilight

= Night, no twilight (darkest shade)

Position of the Sun: Subsolar Point

On Thursday, 10 December 2020, 12:04:00 UTC the Sun is at its zenith at Latitude: 22° 58' South, Longitude: 2° 45' West

The ground speed is currently 427.13 meters/second, 1537.7 kilometres/hour, 955.5 miles/hour or 830.3 nautical miles/hour (knots). The table below shows position of the the Sun compared to the time and date above:

Position of the Moon: Sublunar Point

On Thursday, 10 December 2020, 12:04:00 UTC the Moon is at its zenith at Latitude: 4° 12' South, Longitude: 59° 06' West

The ground speed is currently 446.92 meters/second, 1608.9 kilometres/hour, 999.7 miles/hour or 868.7 nautical miles/hour (knots). The table below shows position of the the Moon compared to the time and date above:

Locations With the Sun Near Its Zenith

The following table shows 10 locations with Sun near zenith position in the sky.

Overview

The aim of this app is to let you dynamically interact with various two dimensional Sun-path diagrams. These diagrams all map the sky dome over either a rectangular chart (orthographic) or circular chart (polar), differing only in the location of the zenith point and the trigonometric relationship of each axis. The position and path of the Sun is then projected onto the diagram at different times of the year and shown as indicative lines.

Diagram Types

Sun-path diagrams are used in many different fields, some of which are more interested in what happens near the zenith, and others in what happens nearer the horizon. In order to expand those areas of interest, different types of diagram map altitude in different ways. The Spherical projection expands values at the zenith and contracts the horizon whilst the Sterographic projection does the opposite. The Equidistant projection shows all altitudes the same by using a linear scale.

World Map Overlay

Sun Path Polar Chart Printable

An interesting co-incidental quirk of polar Sun-path diagrams is their direct relationship with a spherical world map of the same radius centered at the geographic location of the site. As you move the site around, the Sun-path on the diagram is exactly coincident with the sub-solar path on the Earth's surface. The term 'sub-solar' means that point where a line drawn from the center of the Earth to the centre of the Sun intersects the Earth's surface. In other words, where the Sun is directly overhead.

Sun Path Polar Chart

The daily sub-solar path at the two solstices lie on the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn whilst the equinoxes run very close to the Equator. They won't exactly line up as the sub-solar path actually forms a continuous spiral that winds periodically up and down around the Earth's surface, whereas the Equator and the Tropics are conventionally shown as parallel latitudinal lines.

Polar Area Chart

The Sun-path/sub-solar relationship makes the most sense within the 'Spherical Sun-Path' projection as that is pretty close to how we would visually perceive a spherical world map. All of the other polar projections result in some uncharacteristic distortion that is harder to immediately perceive.

Polar Chart Type

NOTE: This relationship does not extend at all to the orthographically projected 'Cartesian Sun-Path'. The app will still overlay the world map for visual comparison, but it won't make any direct physical sense.