Rafe discusses the impact of (1) the earth's elliptical orbit and (2) the tilt of the axis of the earth's axis of rotation on setting clocks.  It turns out that even though the earth is spinning at the same rate, the length of a day varys considerably over the course of a year and failure to account for that can lead to errors as big as 15 minutes.

Rafe explains why the days are different length due to these two issues and how the Equation of Time allows you to reconcile your shadow-based sundial and the clock on your phone, and encourages you to use permanent marker on your flows when taking astronomical observations, especially if you have carpet.

#ellipticalorbit #meansolartime #equationoftime #analemma

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