It had been misty for a week and the Sun had slipped eastwards unseen. Finally a new month brought a break in the weather and I huffed and puffed out from my kitchen desk to the corner of Lombard Street. This time, though, there was no sign of the Sun. Looking west down Lombard Street there were no bright lines to give hope, so this one was a write-off. I walked west anyway, past Bank and down Poultry before seeing the first bright shaft of sunlight. But from Poultry there was no Shard, and anyway it was far too far west. I’ll have to rethink this next time. King William Street runs northwest from Monument and might provide a clearer view, although a quick look at Street View doesn’t fill me with confidence. Pesky tall buildings. Just as well I started this in the summer – kicking off in December would have quickly proved disheartening.
I turned round and went back to Lombard Street and waited for the Sun to catch up. At just gone ten past midday it passed through the skeletal top of the building, but a good way below the peak, hence the view would have to be a fair way north anyway.
So next time it’ll be down Cornhill, but this is the heart of the City, and the chances of a clear view south are minimal. Every 24 hours the Sun moves 360 degrees around the sky, or 15 degrees an hour, or a degree every four minutes. So a ten minute shift is quite something in 12 days – it’s headed 2.5 degrees eastwards in that time. The diameter of the Sun (and Moon, coincidentally) is about half a degree, so it moves its own width across the sky every two minutes. Huh. This neat figure would be accurate if the Earth always moved at the same speed, but we’re speeding up at the moment, getting to our closest approach and moving the fastest on 4th January. This explains why the top loop of the Analemma is so narrow compared to the bottom winter loop. If I were doing this in Christchurch, New Zealand, the big loop would be at the top and all this would be reversed. Maybe I should find a willing partner down/up there…
Shard Analemma 