In our day to day earthbound lives it's easy to forget that we are on a spinning globe, orbiting around a fiery yellow star. Summers are great fun for all of us as long days invite outdoor activities and socializing. We owe those endless days to the tilt of our planet as it journeys round the sun. Since I go to bed at the early hour of 8:00 PM I am keenly sensitive to the tilt and how it impacts my sleep!
Yesterday evening I realized that it was dark at bed time and in an instant I jetted through the space in my head to a place high above the solar system to see Earth as she accelerated to her date with the autumnal equinox next month. Since the summer solstice nearly one hour of daylight has been trimmed. This trend will continue right up until the winter solstice, or the shortest day of the year, in December.
I found a great WEB site that illustrates the tilt and place of the Earth on any given day of the year. It's fascinating to watch, as we zoom around the Sun, how the tilt of the planet influences the length of the day: http://www.cs.sbcc.cc.ca.us/~physics/flash/LengthofDay.swf
Press the FAST FORWARD arrow and go through an entire year. If you detect a slight speeding up and then a reduction of speed you would be correct. As the Earth's elliptical orbit takes us closer to the Sun, the forward velocity speeds up. So we literally race towards winter, as we are closest to the Sun in January. Then the planet's velocity gradually slows as we reach the farthest point away from the sun in early July. Presently we are gaining speed again, in a hurry for our big date with the Sun in January.
Warren Hohmann
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