This mosaic is from a sequence of pictures of the sunset taken from the balcony of my apartment in La Serena, Chile. This is at 30 degrees south latitude. The buildings on the Avenida del Mar are about 5 km away. The pictures were taken by Kevin Krisciunas. Mario Urrutia made the composite image.

Below I give the dates on which the pictures were taken and also the corresponding dates when one can witness the Sun setting at the same azimuth. The Cross of the Third Millenium is at such an azimuth that the full disk of the Sun was behind the cross on Feb 10, 2002, and the top of the setting Sun was at the base of the cross on Feb 11th.

The range of azimuth of the setting Sun at 30 degrees north (or south) latitude is 54.7 degrees. On the equator the corresponding range of azimuth over the course of a year is 46.9 degrees, twice the obliquity of the ecliptic. Of course, if you are north of the Arctic circle or south of the Antarctic circle, you can have 24 hour periods with continual daylight or no daylight (i.e. no sunrise or no sunset).

 
    Date of photo    Same azimuth date

1    25 Dec 2001       17 Dec 2002
2    18 Jan 2002       23 Nov 2002
3     6 Feb 2002        4 Nov 2002
4    11 Feb 2002       30 Oct 2002  (top of sun at base of cross)
5    27 Feb 2002       13 Oct 2002
6    15 Mar 2002       27 Sep 2002
7     6 Apr 2002        5 Sep 2002
8    14 Apr 2002       28 Aug 2002
9    24 Apr 2002       17 Aug 2002
10   19 May 2002
11   31 May 2002
12   15 Jun 2002
13   24 Jun 2002
14    6 Jul 2002
15   30 Jul 2002
16    8 Aug 2002

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