London - Auckland winter daylight hours comparison

[igaquo1]

Well as north European falls into the darkness of winter, I thought it would be interesting to compare the winter daylight hours and sun angle compared to Auckland.

Auckland: 36° 55' South
London: 51° 30' North

Altitude comparison

Auckland: Lowest altitude - 21 June
29.7 degrees

London - Period with altitude below 29.7 degrees
16 October - 20 February (4 months, 4 days)

Day length comparison

Auckland: Shortest day - 21 June
9hrs37mins

London - Period with day shorter than 9hrs37mins
2 Nov - 9 Feb (3 months, 7 days)

Jeremy

[tgsnoopy]

Wow. interesting statistics... Must resist urge to look up minimum angle and shortest day in London.

[Nev]

Must be shorter than Invercargill's 8:35 hrs at 46.4°S.

[Michael]

I think when its in Saggitarius (where the 18hr solitice line is) its only up about 17 degrees due south in December.furthur north in England is worse still with it skirting the horizon for less than 6 hours.

[tgsnoopy]

Wow. interesting statistics... Must resist urge to look up minimum angle and shortest day in London.

My partners daughters & their husbands live somewhere in the greater London area. I've heard (from others I know) it's pretty depressing for Kiwi's living there, going to work in the dark then coming home in the dark.

[igaquo1]

Wow. interesting statistics... Must resist urge to look up minimum angle and shortest day in London.

15.1 degrees and 7hrs41mins. Sunrise 8.04am, sunset 3.53pm.

You could claim that it's made up for by the longer days over summer, but for us humans that doesn't quite all count as some is wasted from the 4.43am sunrise till wake up! And further, if one goes to bed at 10pm on a night in June/July, then even the twilight is wasted also.

[Michael]

Honestly what would be good if it didnt vary 10° north or south of the equator,no more than 63° in summer up no less than about 43° in winter.unsure how our seasons would end though?

[Michael]

That height is about the same as Vega in lyra,the 5th brightest star that is visible low in the north for a few months over winter to give an idea about 15 deg altitude.

15.1 degrees and 7hrs41mins. Sunrise 8.04am, sunset 3.53pm.

[tgsnoopy]

Thanks for that (I must admit I posted the stats to my facebook profile I found them that interesting).

[RWood]

To me the most relevant point is the poor amounts of sunshine received, even allowing for day-length.

Greenwich averages 38 hours in December, Heathrow 49 (England stations average 44, UK 36). The summer-winter difference in cloudiness in the UK is much more marked than in NZ.

When in Brazil a year ago I realised one night that I was seeing something you never see outside the tropic boundaries - a fully overhead moon.

[Michael]

The moon can go outside the tropics in its 18 yr cycle to 28° though it can go down to 18° within the tropic zones wheres the sun stays 23.5 each side.Also interesting in overseas places the constellations can be changed ie upside down if far enough latitude from a familar location.

[RWood]

Yes, I was oversimplifying - but since I was at about lat 16S it didn't matter which part of the 18-28 cycle of declination limits the moon was in if it was the right time in the lunar month.