At 02:12 23/06/2002, Jim Muth wrote:

I wrote:

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...

...What has happened is that the earth has reached the point in its orbit where the north end of its axis is tilted directly toward the sun,...

Morgan clarified:

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So the Sun's directly over the North pole? Don't you mean that the Earth's Northern axis is intersecting a line drawn through the sun perpendicular to the plane of the Earth's orbit about the sun (since the Sun's own rotational axis is irrelevant, even if it's the same)?

Yes, this is what I meant. I simplified the wording. But on the planet Uranus, the sun does appear almost directly over the north pole once every Uranian year.

But then saying that the "Sun is as far north as it gets" is equally a simplification. Besides, defining it in terms of the subsolar point works even when the planet isn't rotating at all - but then every day is equinoctal. Morgan L. Owens "And no-one saw that that I'd said ''Capricorn' instead of 'Cancer'? Tsk, tsk, tsk."