English is not my firet language so im sorry if i do not explain myself clearly but i Will try
was Reading about the Sun Yesterday and read that that yesterday The Sun could be observed looking in the West-South-West direction
My question is what does that mean that the sun could be observed in the West South West direction? Does that mean that the sun rose from the West or that it rose from the east and moved towards the West?
In: Planetary Science
If Earth were “straight up and down”, with the north pole “upward”, the south pole “downward” and the equator pointed straight at the Sun, then the Sun would rise due east, go straight overhead and set in the west. (Note – it’s much more accurate to think of the Sun as stationary and Earth rotating toward the east, but even astronomers often think of Earth as stationary with the “celestial sphere” turning around us; it’s just easier.)
But Earth isn’t straight up and down; we’re tilted quite a bit. We’re 23 degrees off the “vertical”. I’m in the north half of the Earth, so I get my summer when the north half is tilted toward the Sun and my winter when the north half is tilted away from the sun. Even at the equator, the sunrise varies from 23 degrees north of east, to 23 degrees south of east, during the year. (There are two days, called equinoxes, where at the equator it rises exactly east; for half the year it rises on the north side, for the other half it swings south.)
During the day the sun “arcs” through the sky overhead; it’s not a straight line. Where I am, the sun currently rises to the northeast, then it swings through east, southeast, south, southwest, west, and it will set to the northwest.
If you go to www.suncalc.org you can see a chart for your location that will show you how the sun will move across the sky from your perspective, today or on any other day.
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Southwest is the compass direction halfway between due (exact) south and due west.
West southwest is the direction halfway between southwest and due west – so, 22.5 degrees anticlockwise from due west (67.5 degrees clockwise from due south).
Seen from above the North Pole, the Earth spins anticlockwise. The Sun seems to “rise” in the approximate East every day as the spin moves each of us round from the dark side to the light one. Hours later, the spin carries us round and back into darkness, by which time the Sun is off to the approximate West, and it “sets”.
The Earth’s axis isn’t straight up and down relative to its orbit. If it was, seen from the equator at least, the Earth’s rotation would make it always seem to rise exactly in the east, and set exactly in the west. Because the axis is tilted, though, it will often rise and set above and below the exact directions, according to which way the axis is tilted relative to the Sun.
If the Sun set somewhat round to the south of due west, that simply means that, right now, the north end of the axis is tilted away from the Sun.
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