Dark And Light Times?

[Enjibenji]

hi

just wondering.. what times does it get dark and light in the northern and middle part of thailand? it's my first time here and every new month is a new experience for me

i checked bbc website for the weather a few times, and it says there is an average of 5 sunshine hours for july - september, 6 for october and 8 for this month, november.

thailand is north of the equator, so around this time of the year, the earth's rotation is inclined away from the sun in it's northern hemisphere meaning more shadow? Which i thought meant that all the northern hemisphere would be around the same at getting dark (except the top belt like scandinavia etc where it gets dark very early).

but the bbc website is saying that between this month and last month, there is a huge 2 hour difference?

and it's already dark now, the normal time of getting dark in bangkok, just after 6. And i'm awake very early in the mornings most days and it seems that it starts getting light the same time too.

so, is it true that this month sees lighter nights? or is the bbc website wrong?

thanks

[Maizefarmer]

Actualy I made an effort to do just this many years back. It was oppurtunistic - one of those useless pieces of trivia info. If I recall correctly across the same parrell at the same altitude on the same day over 2 years, I got a differance of just under 6 minutes. This was from a point on the West side of Thailand and a point on the same day a year later on the East side of Thailand (near Cambodia) - and if I recall correctly it was summer.

Not sure how scientific that was, because of course the one big variable I did not address at the time was the relative distances to the horizon, and or there heights, Just found a place that gave me a good 10kms plus (to the horizon and made sure i was at the same altitude each time) - but there was just under 6 minutes differance. In winter it would be less but how much less is a another good question.

In any case, just as for seasonal differances, and for North/South differances for the same day - good question, never done it: but it could be done with a star guide/almanac, chronometer and Sextant! (if you're up to it!!).

[Chang_paarp]

hi

just wondering.. what times does it get dark and light in the northern and middle part of thailand? it's my first time here and every new month is a new experience for me

i checked bbc website for the weather a few times, and it says there is an average of 5 sunshine hours for july - september, 6 for october and 8 for this month, november. This is hours of direct sunshine and does not include cloud covered time. So when it is raining there is not sunshine by this standard, but the sun is out and you can see (most times)

thailand is north of the equator, so around this time of the year, the earth's rotation is inclined away from the sun in it's northern hemisphere meaning more shadow? Which i thought meant that all the northern hemisphere would be around the same at getting dark (except the top belt like scandinavia etc where it gets dark very early).

but the bbc website is saying that between this month and last month, there is a huge 2 hour difference? Again difference in cloud cover, hours of sun shine is a meteorological measure. Look at the hours of day light or check the sunrise and sunset times, there is not a huge difference over the year for these

and it's already dark now, the normal time of getting dark in bangkok, just after 6. And i'm awake very early in the mornings most days and it seems that it starts getting light the same time too.

so, is it true that this month sees lighter nights? or is the bbc website wrong?

thanks

Comments in red. Like the temperature, the hours of daylight does not change radically here. Look at the Thais and locals reaching for the woolly jumpers when the temp gets below 25C. In other part of the world this is a warm day.

[sunreader]

Just look out the window.

Sorted, job done, no rotational inclination of the Earth's parallel in the north hemisphere needed.

[Enjibenji]

Just look out the window.

Sorted, job done, no rotational inclination of the Earth's parallel in the north hemisphere needed.

so what i'm guessing is.. it's still going to get dark at pretty much 6pm this month, next month, and probably the one after that?

thanks

[eefoo]

Thailand, being pretty close to the equator, doesn't have a great deal of difference in the times of sunrise and sunset through the year. The further north you go, the larger the difference becomes; that's why those poor buggers up in Europe only see the sun around lunchtime in winter. For more information go to this link and input the lat/long of the part of Thailand you're interested in into form B and see the difference in the timings. Ensure you check the longitude 'east' block first though - it's a yank site so it defaults to 'west'.

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneYear.php

[alantheembalmer]

Take alook at www.timeanddate.com. There is a lot of data on that site about the sun, moon, times, etc.