Question

You are enjoying the Santa Barbara Solstice Parade at noon on June 21. The sun is beating down on you. How far is it from zenith? (There's a slight complication because of Daylight Savings Time, but just ignore it). A. It's exactly overhead at that time of day B. It's about 4 degrees from the zenith. C. 11 degrees D. It's 34 degrees from zenith, because that's our latitude E. It's 34 degrees above the southern horizon, which is 90 - 34-56 degrees from straight overhead.

Answer 1

At noon on June 21 in Santa Barbara, the Sun is approximately 11 degrees away from zenith, as Santa Barbara's latitude is 34 degrees N and the Sun's declination on this summer solstice is 23 degrees N.

Step-by-step explanation:

During the Santa Barbara Solstice Parade at noon on June 21, the Sun is not directly overhead because Santa Barbara is not on the Tropic of Cancer, where the Sun would be at zenith on this date. Since Santa Barbara is located at approximately 34° N latitude, and on June 21 (the summer solstice), the Sun is at a declination of 23° N, we can calculate that the Sun's zenith distance would be approximately Santa Barbara's latitude minus the Sun's declination, which is 34° - 23° = 11°. Therefore, the correct answer would be 11 degrees, meaning the Sun is 11° away from being directly overhead.

Answer 2

C. 11 degrees.

Step-by-step explanation:

For understanding why, we first need to remember that solstices are the extreme points of the Sun's orbit. For the northern hemisphere, the Sun reaches its maximum distance in the Summer Solstice (June 21), and its minimum distance at Winter Solstice (December 21).

At this points, as seen from earth, the Sun reaches its maximum and minimum declination, +23,5° in June 21 and -23,5° in December 21.

In the figure below, we can see how latitude, our position angle measured from the equator (0°) to the north pole (90°), is affecting the way we see the Sun on June 21.

For general rule, we can say that during June 21:

`Z=L-23,5^(0)`, where Z is the zenith angle, L is the laitude from where we are observing and 23,5° is the Sun's declination that day.

Doing the calculations, we obtain for Santa Barbara (latitude 34,5°) that the zenith angle for the Sun on June 21 will be 11°.