1. The Sun – Our View from the Earth / Using online models to understand the phases of the Moon / Nature of science teaching activities / Nature of science / Home

In what direction do we see the sun moving?

Does the sun rise in the east or the west?
Does it always move across the sky in the same direction?
How does the sun’s position in the sky change over a day?
Does the sun give the same amount of heat and light to one place all through the day?

The sun appears to move westwards across the sky because the earth is spinning in an easterly direction.
The amount of light and heat from the sun changes over a day because the sun’s rays don’t hit each spot on the earth at the same angle throughout the day.
When the sun is high in the sky, its rays have a shorter distance to travel through the atmosphere because they strike the earth’s surface more directly.
When the sun is low in the sky, the light has further to travel through more of the earth’s atmosphere. The sun’s rays are refracted or bent by the atmosphere, and so the sun appears redder, bigger, and squashed!
Days are longer in summer and shorter in winter.

Remember: Never look at the real sun directly.