Hello!
In past, I forgot to mention something exciting I did. It was a time taking experiment suggested by my astronomy mentor back in 10th grade. I am really proud of this super attempt I did back then.
I showed exceptional interest in astronomy at my high school. I was well known for it everywhere. Once I had video conference with my club members at Hyderabad. The other end was speaking from Delhi, from an astronomy club called SPACE. After my presentation was over, they suggested me to try something out that would make be feel great exactly an year after.
The actual thing to do was simple. Fix a sturdy pole on flat surface for undisturbed for a year. Mark the tip the shadow it casts once a week at a fixed time. Here I did it every Sunday at 1 pm and 3 pm. It sounded easy, but maintaining the excitement constant is not.
I made a checklist for ticking all things like 'done', 'bad weather', 'postponed to next day'. You can do it the next day if you miss. All we need is the continuous pattern at end of the year. Enamel colors painted with soft brush are best as they start peeling only after two years. Below is my success captured.
The trick is to follow position of the Sun in sky at a fixed time every day and see how it changes. The changes are due to virtue of rotation and revolution of earth and this is why we get summer solstice and winter solstice every year(Earth's rotational axis remains fixed while revolution carries on, thus north and south hemispheres face the Sun turn by turn). For instance, notice June third week at the bottom. this is about when we have summer solstice. Similarly for December third week at top for winter solstice.
Talking about equinoxes, since I stayed in Hyderabad then (latitude: 17.36N) and equinoxes come twice a year i.e. March 20 and September 23, you can notice that these two dates are northward from center by the same distance (by center I mean intersection of '8'). Cool! Isn't it?
Goutham
In past, I forgot to mention something exciting I did. It was a time taking experiment suggested by my astronomy mentor back in 10th grade. I am really proud of this super attempt I did back then.
I showed exceptional interest in astronomy at my high school. I was well known for it everywhere. Once I had video conference with my club members at Hyderabad. The other end was speaking from Delhi, from an astronomy club called SPACE. After my presentation was over, they suggested me to try something out that would make be feel great exactly an year after.
The actual thing to do was simple. Fix a sturdy pole on flat surface for undisturbed for a year. Mark the tip the shadow it casts once a week at a fixed time. Here I did it every Sunday at 1 pm and 3 pm. It sounded easy, but maintaining the excitement constant is not.
I made a checklist for ticking all things like 'done', 'bad weather', 'postponed to next day'. You can do it the next day if you miss. All we need is the continuous pattern at end of the year. Enamel colors painted with soft brush are best as they start peeling only after two years. Below is my success captured.
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| 1 pm Analemma in red and 3 pm in green along with the checklist. The right top is north pointing. |
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| Top view: you can see the dates and months with 3 pm. The same dates correspond with 1 pm also. The top is north pointing. |
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| The 3 pm Analemma. This is huge. The top is north pointing. |
Talking about equinoxes, since I stayed in Hyderabad then (latitude: 17.36N) and equinoxes come twice a year i.e. March 20 and September 23, you can notice that these two dates are northward from center by the same distance (by center I mean intersection of '8'). Cool! Isn't it?
Goutham
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