Sunrise and sunset moving together in December?

Question

This is really puzzling me. So I thought that after the summer solstice the sunrise and sunset move toward each other and make the day shorter. And then after the winter solstice they move away from each other (sunrise earlier, sunset later) to make the day longer. This makes sense with the tilt of the earth and all.

Looking at the actual times, it seems that there are 2 weeks after the winter solstice at the end of December where:

1. The sunrise continues to get later
2. The sunset also gets later (and faster, lengthening the day

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=234&month=12&year=2006&obj=sun&afl=-11&day=1

Why is this?

Answer 1

This is due to the Earth being at perihelion on January 4-5, so the earth is moving fastest in its orbit around the sun. The easiest way to understand is to look at an "annalemma", or analemma, I believe that is what they call it. It is a picture of the sun's position in the sky taken at precisely the same time of day during the whole year. It looks like a twisted loop with an upper lobe and a lower lobe, sort of like a figure 8, only the bottom part, or winter part, is a much bigger loop than the upper or summer part. (Northern hemisphere). The sun seems to follow this loop through the year, and the part that you are referring to is at the very bottom, or at the very widest part of the loop, if you will. If the Earth's orbit were a perfect circle, The annalemma would be equal on the top and bottom. I hope this helps. Check out this cool link, from Germany:http://www.analemma.de/english/analem.html

Answer 2

The Earth is tilted by 23 1/2 degrees. During the Summer months,
the north is pointed toward the Sun allowing more direct sunlight.
During the winter, we are tilted away from the sun so the sunlight
is more indirect as the sun seems lower in the sky.
There are 4 cardinal points in our calender;
Summer solstice, autumnal equinox, winter solstice and vernal equinox.
Beginning of summer, fall, winter and spring. This coincides
with the position of earth as it goes around the sun.
Each of the cardinal days can take place over a three day period,
20th, 21st, 22nd. On June 22nd, summer solstice, it is the longest
day of the year. It is also the day that the north pole is pointing
directly at the sun. The next day it will have passed this point
and start pointing away from the sun, hence, the days will also start
getting shorter. For further info,
feel free to email me, [e-mail]

Answer 3

Hi. Because the Earth's orbit is not perfectly circular. The Solstice(s) have to do with the length of the day in total, not the sunrise/sunset times.