There was a lunar eclipse last week during the full moon. This would place the moon directly on the ecliptic. Since an eclipsed a full moon is exactly opposite the sun, it acts like the sun six months from later or earlier (Like the sun in the summer).
John John L. Carmichael Jr. Sundial Sculptures 925 E. Foothills Dr. Tucson Arizona 85718 USA Tel: 520-696-1709 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website: <http://www.sundialsculptures.com> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave Bell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Sundial, Mailinglist" <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, January 06, 2002 6:19 PM Subject: Was Re: Polar ceiling sundial > On Sun, 6 Jan 2002, fer j. de vries wrote: > > > The max. altitude of the sun h = 90 - phi + 23.5 degrees. > > This reminded me of something I saw recently, that was a bit of a puzzle: > > I live at 37.3N latitude. This puts the mean plane of the Ecliptic at > something like 52.7 degrees elevation. Near the Winter Solstice, the Sun > is 23.5 degrees depressed, or a maximum elevation of 29.2 degrees. I can't > recall offhand what the angle of the Moon's orbit is, relative to the > Ecliptic, but a week or so back, very near full Moon, we came out of a > movie theater late, near midnight. I would swear the Moon was barely 5 or > 10 degrees off the Zenith! It seemed hard to imagine, at this time of year > in the North... > > Dave > 37.29N 121.97W >
