Good morning I need some help with my end of course design project. Could someone tell me how I can find the summer and winter solstice points on my property to mark on a map. I am stuck and need this to know to continue. I am embarrassed to say that I have never taken enough notice of where on the horizon the sun rises, where is sets, and the path it takes throughout the year. Thanks in advance
Short of getting out of bed at sunrise on each of those days I don't know the answer. But I'm interested to know the answer. Terra or Andrew? Do you know?
Hey JoeMay, Welcome to the forums. For calculating the azimuth of sunrise and sunset on the solstices (and any other day of the year) for your location, I like this calculator: https://www.iesmith.net/tools/solarcalc.html As an introduction to it's use, drag the little yellow marker on the map to somewhere near your location in the world, zoom-in, adjust the marker, zoom-in some more, and you can precisely place the marker on your property. Then click your cursor in the "Local Date and Time" field and select either June 21 or Sep 23 (solstice dates for 2014) from the calendar and noon local time. The map will indicate the angles of sunrise and sunset, plus the exact azimuth angle is indicated "Previous Sunrise" and "Next Sunset" fields. This information can be transposed to your site map (correcting for local magnetic deviation ... or use the automatic Magnet Declination correction in the calculator) and also you can identify site landmarks from a known position on your property with a compass.
I like this one: https://www.gaisma.com/en/location/ennis.html The link above is for a location near me and shows you the info you get. To find your own location (roughly), go to https://www.gaisma.com/en/dir/001-continent.html