Description

As seen on Astronomy Picture of the Day if you took a picture of the Sun at the same time each day, would it remain in the same position? The answer is no, and the shape traced out by the Sun over the course of a year is called an analemma. The Sun’s apparent shift is caused by the Earth’s motion around the Sun when combined with the tilt of the Earth’s rotation axis. The Sun will appear at its highest point of the analemma during summer and at its lowest during winter. Analemmas created from different latitudes would appear at least slightly different, as well as analemmas created at a different time each day. This particular analemma was built up by 36 separate Sun photos taken during one year (From January to December 2010), all at exactly 10 local time. Pictured in the foreground of this composite image is the photographer’s house and neighborhood in Veszprem, Hungary. The foreground image is made without solar filter in October during late afternoon when the sun was on the other side of sky, causing the photographer’s shadow on the wall. Tamas Ladanyi/ladanyi.csillagaszat.hu

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comments (6)


  • Ian Reply

    Very cool pic, Congrats on the apod.

    December 31, 2010 at 1:38 am
  • Colin Reply

    Outstanding!

    December 31, 2010 at 8:05 am
  • Gene - California, USA Reply

    What a wonderful way to end the year. A great photography job.

    December 31, 2010 at 10:01 am
  • ivan Reply

    that’s cool. but there is a question: do you have so excellent weather in Hungary that let you have a photo every 10 days without a single failure?

    > Analemmas created from different latitudes would appear at least slightly different, as well as analemmas created at a different time each day

    the form (angular geometry) of analemmas is exactly the same at any point of the Earth. the only difference is their location and orientation in the sky

    January 3, 2011 at 3:44 pm
  • Tamas Reply

    Thanks your comments.
    Ivan, as you can see the distances between sun photos aren’t equal: the time interval was from eight days to approx two weeks. Finally I had luck with the weather during the year.
    Best regards:
    Tamas

    January 11, 2011 at 7:53 am

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