23 April 2020

Zero Shadow Day in Bangalore


Tomorrow 24th of April as every year Bangalore will witness Zero Shadow Day. Sun as we all know appears to move in north and south directions which we call uttarayana and dhakshinayana. At present Sun is in northern motion and will reach the northern most point of 23.5 degrees on June 21st

During this motion, tomorrow Sun will be exactly overhead at local noon in Bangalore. To find out when Sun will be exactly overhead on your location just check the declination of Sun, if Declination of Sun and latitude of your location is same then on that day Sun will be exactly overhead at local noon. 


To observe the Zero Shadow Day you need a vertical reference like a pole which is straight and perpendicular to the ground, this can be pencil, a small nail, a water bottle etc,. Since we are all in lock down, we can spend few minutes observing this phenomenon. Setup your experiment well before 12 noon and start observing from 12 noon to 12:30 and you will see the shadow move from one side of the reference to other side and with no shadow at 12:17pm. 

Hope skies will be clear and you all will enjoy this activity with full family.