I’ve lived in my house for a few summers. Ever year around the solstice the sun seems to set in the north. I live in a city that’s laid out like a grid and always just assumed my street was on a slight angle. I just took out a compass and it’s not, the front of my house faces perfectly west and the sun seems to be setting slightly north, to the right of the window. I’m very confused. Is the sun playing a trick on me?
In: Physics
Tldr: Because it is. It’s not an illusion.
The Earth is tilted compared to it’s orbit. This means the sun varies in it’s position from overhead depending on the time of year.
If you position yourself at the equator this means that half the year the sun is to your North, the other half it’s to your South depending on if the Earths North Pole is tilted towards our away from the sun.
Now let’s take the extreme and place you beat the North Pole in summer. From there the sun never sets at all. It’ll Skim the horizon but never set. Where you are it’s going to be in between.
Here’s an image:. https://maas.museum/app/uploads/sites/6/2014/01/Motion-Sun-solstices-equinoxes_Nick-Lomb.gif
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