Sunrise

The sun has been rising further and further to the south. It's easy for me to judge right now because it's close to the village water tower which juts up from the horizon. The point of sunrise has been moving quickly but will slow down as we approach the solstice. If you stand in the same position and note the position of the sun at the same time each day of the year you would find that the sun's position points make a lazy figure 8 in the sky. That figure "8" is called a analemma and is caused by the tilt of the earth's axis and orbit eccentricities. The middle of the "8" are the two equinox's - spring and fall. The top of the "8" is the summer solstice when the sun is high in the sky and the bottom of the 8 is the winter solstice when the sun is low. If you think of the "8" as a racetrack, the sun races through the equinoxes but has to slow down as it goes through the corners (of course that's from a geocentric viewpoint). Pretty interesting to see the stuff you learned in school in actual practice.