What are the coordinates for the location of the sun on the solstices and equinoxes?

Answer 1

The Sun is right where it always is; in the center of the Solar System, with the

planets orbiting around it.

From our perspective standing here on the spinning Earth, the Sun APPEARS TO

rise in the East and set in the West, and to move slowly north between December 21

and June 21, and then to move slowly south from June 21 to December 21. But

just

remember that this is a sort of optical illusion; it's the Earth's movements that make

it seem so.

At the northern hemisphere summer solstice, around June 21, the Sun appears to

pass DIRECTLY overhead for locations along the Tropic of Cancer, at 23 degrees 26 minutes

North Latitude (because the Earth "wobbles" a bit, this value changes very slightly

each year), and then slowly spirals south. On the fall Equinox, the Sun passes

directly overhead along the equator, on September 21. (These dates will fluctuate

a day either way depending on the cycle of leap years.) The Sun "moves" south,

reaching its southernmost location over the Tropic of Capricorn (23 degrees, 26 minutes

south) on December 21, the northern hemisphere winter solstice.

After that, the Sun appears to slowly move north, passing over the equator on the

spring equinox, and passing over the Tropic of Cancer again on June 21.

In terms of the sun's celestial (astronomical) coordinates on the map of the stars:

-- March equinox . . . . . Right Ascension 0hours, Declination 0°

-- June solstice . . . . . . Right Ascension 6hours, Declination +23.4394°

-- September equinox . . Right Ascension 12hours, Declination 0°

-- December solstice. . . Right Ascension 18hours, Declination -23.4394°