Some of you might be interested in this especially those who are
in to Earth Science. There is no question that for most of us on
Earth, the shortest and longest days of the year occur on June
21 and December 21, give or take a day or two each year.  Around
June 21, we will have our longest day and the Southern half of
the world will have it's shortest day, but here is where things
get a little interesting.

	Let's take December 21. The earliest Sunset is actually
almost 2 weeks before that on December 7. By the 21ST, the
Sunset is already 2 or 3 minutes later.

	The Sunrise time keeps getting later right through
Christmas day and stalls out around New Years day before slowly
starting to get earlier.

	In June, we get our earliest Sunrise around the tenth
and latest Sunset around July 4. Those of you who are in to grey
line DXing can keep this in the back of your minds for reference.

	Now for why all this is so. 

	The Earth's orbit is elliptical. We are closest to the
Sun on January 4 and are furthest away on July 4 and that, of
course is true whether or not you are in the Northern or
Southern hemisphere.

	As the Earth gets closer to the Sun in late December and
Early January, the Sun's position relative to us appears to
change most rapidly from one day to the next. As the Earth
rotates, the Sun is not in the same place it was yesterday. It
is a moving target.

	It took me a long time to understand why this is so, but
once you understand it, it is not really that difficult.

	The reason why the first day of our seasons is not
always on the 21ST of December, March, and June is that we
measure it from when the Sun is directly over the Equator or
tropics so we just wait things out and call it when it happens.
Since the year is about 365.25 days long, the magic moment
doesn't hit at the same times every year.

	Have a nice confusing day, now.

73 WB5agz