Ninja_small
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What is the angle of the sun here? (summer & winter)

I'm buying a house and trying to figure out how much of the lawn on the north side will get shaded by the house (and thus not be a good place to plant stuff). I figure if I know the angle of the sun in winter and summer and the height of the house, I can figure out how far from the house the garden would need to be to avoid the shade.

David Nixon asked in Other Gardening about 1 year ago | Report

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4 Answers

  • Copenhagen_2_small
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    We in Seattle are at about 47.5 degrees North, and the earth's axis is tilted with respect to the plane of its orbit by 23.5 degrees, giving

    90 - (47.5 - 23.5) = 66 degrees midsummer

    90 - (47.5 + 23.5) = 19 degrees midwinter

    easy-peesy and doesn't require any iThings. Also, this may just be me, but in the effort to answer this question, rotating the tilted finger of one of my hands (earth) around my other hand (sun) helped me figure out what's going with celestial mechanics!

    Marm answered in Other Gardening about 1 year ago | Report
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  • Gold-head_small
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    Angle of the what? We don't have that here.

    Seriously, I'm not an expert at azimuths and stuff, but I found a tool online at http://solardat.uoregon.edu/SunChartProgram.php that calculates for you based on zip code. For mine (98103) I got a maximum solar angle of about 18 degrees for noon on Dec 21st, and 66 degrees for noon on June 21st.

    Note that it's only noon for a second, and the rest of the ridiculously short day the sun will be lower than that, and most of the time in winter the entire north side of everything is going to be in shade almost all the time. So if you're growing a lawn, it's going to be mostly moss. We're considerably further north than Montreal.

    Fnarf answered in Other Gardening about 1 year ago | Report
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  • Sacri_ordines_by_charism_small
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    These fine folks used to have a mock up room (on Pine) that would answer this question (and for the same reason, too!) based on time of year, time of date, longitude/latitude, etc. They've since moved, and I don't know if their 4th ave location has the same sweetass way of seeing in it in 3D.

    http://www.lightingdesignlab.com/ldl/labresources.html

    might also ask these folks:
    http://www.betterbricks.com/

    Rev.Enant answered in Other Gardening about 1 year ago | Report
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  • Bike-scope_small
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    Do you have an iPhone/iPad? There are several apps that let see the sunlight angles for any location. More importantly, you can play with the controls to see how the light will hit throughout the day/month/year/etc.

    I'm not entirely certain since I don't have my Device at the moment, but I think I've used LightTrac a few times and found it good (purchased back when it was 99 cents): http://appshopper.com/photography/lighttrac

    The are other versions of the concept, like this pricier one: http://appshopper.com/photography/the-photographers-ephemeris . And I suppose there may be equivalent 'Droid versions of light tracking apps.

    stinkbug answered in Other Gardening about 1 year ago | Report
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