Subject: Re: solar charts

From: [email-masked] (Nick Pine)
Date: 11 May 1996 12:45:47 -0400

Margaret Cyrzan  <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>I am interested in finding the position of the sun at noon at approx. 40 
>degrees latitude in July.  In other words at what angle is the sun from the 
>horizon.  Where can I get such information from?

You might look in the second (1991) edition of Duffie and Beckman's Wiley
book, _Solar Engineering of Thermal Processes_. At noon on June 21, the sun
gets up to 90+23.5-lat, ie 73.5 degrees above the horizon at 40 N lat. On
Dec 22 the max elevation is 90-23.5-lat, eg 26.5 degrees above the horizon
at 40 N lat. At other times of year, the max angle above the horizon follows
a shifted sine wave in Iqbal's formula, 90-lat+23.45sin((284+day)360/365),
where day is the day of the year from 1 (Jan 1) to 365 (Dec 31).
 
>Also, does anyone know where I might find a chart that shows the angle at 
>different times in the day for different months at different latitudes?

There's a formula in D&B's book above.

Nick

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From: [email-masked] (Jeff Rearick)
Date: 14 May 1996 19:31:51 GMT

Nick Pine ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Margaret Cyrzan  <[email-masked]> wrote:
: >
: >I am interested in finding the position of the sun at noon at approx. 40 
: >degrees latitude in July.  In other words at what angle is the sun from the 
: >horizon.  Where can I get such information from?
:
: You might look in the second (1991) edition of Duffie and Beckman's Wiley
: book, _Solar Engineering of Thermal Processes_.... [snip]
:  
: >Also, does anyone know where I might find a chart that shows the angle at 
: >different times in the day for different months at different latitudes?
:
: There's a formula in D&B's book above.

In case you're not near a library but are near a browser, you could surf to:

  http://solstice.crest.org/staff/ceg/sunangle/

and run the interactive calculator (with lots of good help menus).

Jeff

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From: Richard Retzlaff <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 14 May 1996 12:20:45 -0600

>>horizon.  Where can I get such information from?

Just a thought...

As an alternative to this, the (I assume) building you are 
considering could be modelled in 3 Dimensions (on a CADD system) 
and then one could use a program that would essentially "shine" 
light on the building according to building location (Lat-Long) 
and time of day.  This would show shadows, illumination, 
reflection etc.  A very realistic view of the effect of the sun 
on the space.  One could then do an animation compressing an 
entire day into about 30 seconds.

Richard Retzlaff
[email-masked]

---

From: [email-masked] (PLonewolf)
Date: 15 May 1996 15:46:53 -0400

A GPS unit from Trimble Inc. can give you this informaton. This is a unit
designed for the military but sold to the civilian market. One of its
functions is to give you the direction and height of the sun during
anytime of the year at any location you put in. It is very handy. It also
does this for the moon since a lot of military operations are at night.
Hope this helps and if you need a address dorp a line.
Pierre A. Lonewolf
Lonewolf Communications
KOTZ-AM
Kotzebue, Alaska 99752