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If the angle of the sun is 55 degrees at noon what is your latitude?
Wiki User
∙ 14y ago
You will need to know the date, in order to look up (or calculate) the declination of the Sun, which is its position north or south of the equator. You can look this up in the Nautical Almanac or it can be calculated. See link below. It is also essential that your watch or chronometer be set EXACTLY to the correct time. It's helpful to have your watch set to GMT or Greenwich Mean Time. That way, you don't have to figure out your time zone.
On the Equinox dates - about March 21 and September 21 (plus or minus one day because of the cycle of leap years) - the Sun's declination is zero. On June 21, the Summer Solstice, the declination is 23 degrees, 26 minutes 22seconds north, and on December 21 it is the same distance south of the equator.
You also must measure the elevation of the Sun not at 12:00PM according to your watch, but at the "local apparent noon", the time when the Sun reaches its maximum elevation in the sky.
Your latitude is 90 - (the angle of the Sun) - (declination). Today is September 1, 2009. I will measure Sun's elevation at the Local Apparent Noon or "LAN".
(By the way, I will note the exact time of LAN on my watch, set to GMT. I will look up, in the Nautical Almanac, the "GHA" or Greenwich Hour Angle and I will be able to interpolate between the published numbers and find my exact longitude as well as the latitude.)
Let's say that I measure the LAN elevation and note that the elevation is 55 degrees at 17:28 GMT. (I need to measure this to the precise SECOND for real accuracy.) I can go into the Nautical Alamanac and note that at 17:00 the GHA is 75 degrees 1.6 minutes and at 18:00 the GHA is 90 degrees 1.8 minutes. The Sun travels at 15 degrees per hour or 4 minutes per degree. So at 17:28 precisely, the GHA was 82 degrees 1.7 minutes.
So the declination of the Sun was about 8 degrees, 2.5 minutes North. If the Sun was at EXACTLY 55 degrees above the horizon at LAN on 9/1/09, then my latitude is 90 - 55 - 8 degrees 1.5 minutes, or 26 degrees 58.5 minutes north. So my position is 26 degrees 58.5 minutes north, 82 degrees 1.7 minutes West. In other words, I'm just east of Port Charlotte, Florida. I'll need to be careful about the alligators!
There are two things you will need to do celestial navigation. One is a good sextant, which is the tool you use to measure the angle of the Sun above the horizon. The second is a VERY accurate watch. If your watch is off by a minute, your position will be off by at least a quarter-mile.
In the old days of sailing ships, clocks were chancy at best; after all, you couldn't use a pendulum clock aboard a bobbing ship at sea! It isn't surprising that the British Admiralty offered a fortune to the inventor who could build a clock that could keep time at sea.
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∙ 14y ago
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How many degrees did the angle of noon?
Noon is when the sun is overhead or at its zenith for whichever part of the world you are on. The angle would depend on the time of year and your latitude.
Is the sun particularly high in the sky at noon if it lies 63 degrees above the observer's horizon?
It is not particularly high but it may be the highest that it can get - depending on the observer's latitude.
About how long is a shadow of an 80 ft tall oak tree if the angle of the sun is 40 degrees?
It depends on the angle of depression of the sun. The answer would be 80ft * tan(90-angle of depression) At a depression angle of 40 degrees, the shadow would be 80 * tan (50) which equals 95.340ft
How long is the shadow cast by a 21 foot tree?
The answer depends on the angle of the sun. That will depend on the time of day, latitude and the season.
How do you find the Angle Of Sun When Tree Is 6.25m And The Shadow Is 10.1m Long?
Use the tangent angle of elevation which works out as 31.7497 degrees to four decimal places
What is angle of the noon sun at latitude 35 degrees N on Dec 212017?
It is 58.4 degrees.
How many degrees did the angle of noon?
Noon is when the sun is overhead or at its zenith for whichever part of the world you are on. The angle would depend on the time of year and your latitude.
How many degrees latitude will the sun be at noon during Fall Equinox 2008?
At the equinox, the Sun will be directly above the equator, 0 degrees latitude.
What is the summer sun angle in Houston?
The steepest sun angle reached in Houston, TX is on June 21 during solar noon. That angle is 83.7 degrees (almost straight up). Vertical objects will have the shortest shadows on June 21. To find the solar noon sun angle on the summer/winter solstice and spring/fall equinox for your location, simply find your latitude and subtract it from 90. Then add 23.45. Houston's latitude is 29.75 degrees north of the equator. So... 90-29.75=60.25 60.25+23.45=83.7 degree sun angle
From latitude 35 what is the highest altitude above the noon sun?
For an observer at latitude 35 degrees, the highest the sun can ever be in his sky is roughly 31.5 degrees above the horizon.
What time is the sun's angle 63.9?
We can't figure that out from the information provided. The only thing we can say for certain is that your latitude is no greater than 40.4 degrees north or south. If that's your latitude, then this can only happen at Local Apparent Noon, when the Sun is highest in the sky.
What is the lowest the sun can ever be in the sky at local noon at latitude 6 degrees 34 minutes north?
The lowest the sun can ever be in the sky at local noon at latitude 6 degrees 34 minutes north is approximately 145 million kilometres.
What latitude is the Sun directly overhead at noon on Halloween?
The Sun is directly overhead the same latitude at noon every day. It is over the equator at 0 degrees. Just because it is Halloween doesn't change anything.
What latitude for Arnold is the sun directly overhead at noon on the equinox and solstice?
There is no latitude on earth at which the sun would be directly overhead at noon on the equinox and the solstice.
Which latitude would you expect the sun to be directly overhead at noon on April 21?
8 degrees north
How much higher is the sun at noon compared to midnight at latitude 80 degrees north - on days where the sun never sets?
First, we need the "transit altitude" of the celestial equator, at 80 degrees north. That's 90 - 80 degrees = 10 degrees. At noon (local apparent noon) the Sun's altitude will be: 10 degrees + the Sun's declination. That's the altitude of the Sun's "upper culmination". At "midnight" (the Sun's "lower culmination") the Sun's altitude will be: the Sun's declination - 10 degrees. So, the difference in altitude is 20 degrees. The Sun is 20 degrees higher at noon.
Where does the noon sun fall during the equinox?
During the equinoxes, when the Sun is at its highest, it will be at a distance from the zenith which is the same as your geographical latitude, but in the opposite direction. For example, if you live 50 degrees north of the equator, the Sun will be 50 degrees south of the zenith at noon.
