The Path of the Sun: Museum Victoria

The diagram below shows the path of the Sun across the sky in Melbourne for four important dates:

The Autumn Equinox, usually on March 21, is when the Sun rises exactly east, sets exactly west and we have approximately equal day and night.
The Winter Solstice, usually on June 22, is when the Sun is furthest north and we have our shortest day; and longest night.
The Spring Equinox, usually on September 23, is identical to that of March 21, except that the Sun rises 16 minutes earlier on September 23.
The Summer Solstice, usually on December 22, is when the Sun is furthest south and we have our longest day and shortest night.

The outer circle on the diagram represents the horizon and the inner circles are lines of constant elevation, drawn at 15° intervals. The radial lines are lines of constant azimuth drawn at 15° intervals also.

The position of the Sun at each hour of the day is marked and the time indicated. All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time. Add one hour for daylight savings.

Hi there Suradi - thanks for your question. According to the Museum's Planetarium Presenters, these days a Sun Path can be got using any good astronomy program or planetarium software such as Starry Night or Stellarium. Please note, if you would like to use our diagram for anything other than private use then MV copyright acknowledgement would be expected.

Hi I live in the UK and am used to the "apparent" path of the sun rising roughly east, travelling across the south and setting roughly west. Does it do this just the same in the southern hemisphere

Hi there John. As in the Northern Hemisphere the Sun rises in the East and sets in West (due to Earth’s rotation from west to east), but its path as seen from the Southern Hemisphere is across the northern sky. You might find this link and this one useful.

Hi Mel, the Tropic of Capricorn is technically an infinitesimally thin line, although the uncertainty in the measurement of the Earth's obliquity corresponds to an error in positioning of the Tropic of about 3cm. We can't locate the Tropic any better than this, so this is a kind of width.

At the moment the Tropic is at 23°26'16.7" S. But the obliquity of the Earth varies and is decreasing around a half a second of arc per year, so the Tropic is moving slowly northwards at the same rate. This corresponds to something like 13m per year. So depending on what kind a timeframe you want to look at this also puts limits on how precisely you can locate the tropic. Within a decade, for example, we can't locate the Tropic more precisely than a 133m band.

Thanks for this site MV, and for the links to stellarium. I'm downloading it now and as I travel around our Country/continent I'm sure I'll enjoy a better understanding of what I'm seeing in the sky around the camp fire

Hi, Fernando. The "Time and Date" website gives information about the length of days for several locations in regional Victoria, including Ballarat. Hope this helps!

Hi, I am wanting to know what seats get the most shade at the MCG for the cricket this summer. If I am interpretting the diagram correctly, would I be best to get seats at the northern end of the ground?

when we set our clocks ahead in Australia, would a country in the northern hemisphere on the same longitude line set their clocks forward or backward? Would the time on the the same longitude line be the same, or different by 2 hours?

Why does the sun rise and set earlier in sydney than in melbourne -- I have seen live telecasts from melboune showing it is still dark or light there when the opposite is true in Sydney

Hi Georgina - Several factors effect sunrise and set times, such as surrounding buildings or mountains, elevation above sea level, etc; however the main reason in this case is because Sydney is much further east than Melbourne, by approximately 700 km.

Hope that helps

When the sun sets in one place it would be a sun rise at another. My question is when the sun sets in Melbourne in which place does it rise? (at the same time). Is there a way to compute the two places where the sun sets and rises at the same time? For example when the sun rises in London where does it set?

Hi M G, there are quite a number of web sites that display this information. This site does give you the option of setting your own times, and also has a lot of other good information.

The Path of the Sun

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