Now you?
What is being described is the progression of the sunrise emerging from southernmost point of the Eastern horizon, during the last 365 sunrises. By modern astronomers’ reckoning (with all the appropriate leap year calculations and so forth) this day is usually December 22. December 23 the sun actually rises just a little bit north of where it rose the day before - - on its new northern leg of its sunrises - - until it reaches the northernmost point at the Summer Solstice. But because this is a very tiny difference, many ancient schools of astronomy treat it as essentially the same as the day before, and the same as the next day. Some ancient astronomers characterized the Winter Solstice as a “three day” rather than as a “one day” event. As the literal meaning of “solstice” implies [Sun-Standing], this behavior represents 3 days of the sun “standing” at the same spot on the horizon (or the appearance of it), working its way northward again after its 6 month effort to reach the southern-most point on the horizon at sunrise.
December 25 is the first day the sun starts to move it’s Sunrise location on the horizon northward - - until reaching the northern-most point of its sunrise at the Summer Solstice, where it starts back in the other direction. A typical globe map of the Earth (and the better sundials) include a drawing called the Analemma which is a graphical representation of the sun’s daily/weekly/monthly/annual shift…
A typical globe map of the Earth (and the better sundials) include a drawing called the Analemma which is a graphical representation of the sun’s daily/weekly/monthly/annual shift…
[Edited] - analemmas for any given spot remain the same year after year, using solar time, rather than humanly contrived time. If you are taking daily pictures of the sun, you wouldn’t follow the “fall back/spring forward” rule of daylight savings… you would use the same time, exactly 24 hours after the first photo/point, and so on, for 365 days.
[As @Bill_II discusses in a post below, I am hoping I am paraphrasing correctly: the analemma provides the adjustment for a sun dial, to adjust the sun’s natural time to human time. Bill, if there is a better way (or more accurate way) to describe this, I welcome it.]
[Edited]
The length, width and angle of the figure eight pathway varies according to each spot chosen to calculate the analemma… with the shape and angle of the analemma being unique to each latitude (lines that are parallel to the Equator) of the Earth.