I've been freezing my hiney off for nothing...

[Ridgerunner]

You can growl at me if you wish. I really don't mind. You may accuse me of piling on, but December 21 was a Solstice, not an Equinox, at least for me. This is the length of daylight I have been getting lately, not adjusted for cloud cover.

Date Sunrise Sunset Length of Daylight

December 14, 2009 7:20 5:05 9:45
December 21, 2009 7:24 5:07 9:43
December 25, 2009 7:26 5:10 9:44
December 31, 2009 7:27 5:14 9:47
January 6, 2010 7:28 5:19 9:51
January 10, 2010 7:28 5:22 9:54
January 12, 2010 7:27 5:24 9:57
January 15, 2010 7:27 5:27 10:00

Something I find interesting, the days are getting longer since the Solstice, but sunrise has not yet started getting earlier for me. The reason days are getting longer is that sunset is getting later. Here are a couple of sites that will give you daylight hours. My international friends may not be able to use zip code to get theirs.

Almanac with hours of light
http://www.almanac.com/sunrise/40379

World – Hours of Daylight
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=197&month=9&year=2009&obj=sun&afl=-11&day=1


Uzuri, you are probably not in the mood, but would you care to guess why this occurs, the sun rising later and the sun setting later for a while after a Solstice?

 

[Uzuri]

And I was talking about what happens in September, the equinox. I picked a pattern of 5 typical "before" days only because I only had 5 "after" days to compare them with, not because I'd only had the light on for 5 days. I'd been doing the light all the way since September.

I'd noticed the sunrises still running later before, and it was something I hadn't known about until this year -- learn something new all the time

It's an incredible pain for letting them out because it's still so dark when I need to leave for work. Few weeks will fix that, though.

 

[Kittymomma]

Quote:

And I'm SO HAPPY about that!!

I love it in the summer when it's light before 5:00 a.m. and not dark until 10 p.m, but when it doesn't get light until 7:30 and is dark by 5:00 p.m it's just depressing. I don't blame my chooks for not wanting to lay many eggs, I don't want to do much of anything either.

 

[chookchick]

Quote:
Yeah, and most of these days it's so dark out that it looks like 4PM all day....

 

[Ridgerunner]

Quote:
Sorry. I misread your post. I thought you were referring to a recent event. Rereading your original post in context, I see my mistake.

The reason for dawn coming later although days are getting longer has to do with the thickness of the sun. Sunrise is when the leading edge of the sun tops the horizon. Sunset is when the following edge of the sun goes below the horizon. The arrival of sunrise slows down while sunset speeds up.

 

[Uzuri]

Neat!

I didn't know that's why it worked that way, but it makes sense.

 

[tdgill]

Quote:
uhhhhh

that's what she said

congrats to steve carell on people's choice