The noonday sun can only be at zenith in the tropics. At temperate latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, the noonday sun is never at zenith but is always found in the southern sky.Īt temperate latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, the noonday sun is never at zenith but is always found in the northern sky.
The sun crosses your local meridian – the imaginary semicircle that crosses the sky from due north to due south – at local noon.Īt solar noon, the sun can be at one of three places: at zenith (straight overhead), north of zenith or south of zenith.
When does it happen for you each day? It might or might not surprise you to learn it doesn’t usually happen at noon on your clock. The point where the sun crosses that arc – when the sun is highest for that day – is variously called solar noon, or midday, or high noon, or local noon or just plain noon.Īn astronomer might say that the sun is making an upper meridian transit at such a time. In the jargon of astronomers and celestial navigators, your local meridian is an imaginary semi-circle that crosses your sky’s dome from due north to due south. The analemma shows the difference between sun noon and clock noon for every day of the year. An analemma on a globe at the Globe Museum in Vienna, Austria.
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