A Bright Star

9.8 Million Miles Away

We're level at 17'000 feet above a platform of brilliant white clouds. The Earth's closest star is shining brightly though the 1/2 thick windshield. The visor is down, sunglasses on, but still it's bright enough to warrant a couple of maps to be hung in the windows.

Using a formula I read about just the other day in an aviation weather book I attempt to figure out the sun's angle (e) above the earth from my location. The formula is e = 90 - (L - Lp) where Lp is the latitude where the sun is directly over head at noon, ei: Summer time the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer or 23.5 degree latitude North. L is the latitude of where you are.

I figure since we are roughly 47 days passed the winter equinox and there is about 91 days in between each equinox, the sun would be pretty near right in between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Equator or about 11.5 (Lp) degrees South. ( When using south latitudes I use a negative number.) And right now I'm flying over the 54.5 (L) degree latitude North. Put the numbers together and I get a sun angle of...

e = 90 - (54.5 - (-11.5))

e = 90 - (54.5 + 11.5)

e = 90 - 66

e = 23 degrees, huh, the sun looks a lot higher to me than that, but then I am nearly 3 miles above the earth. Anyways, back to flying...

Calgary is now 250 NM in front of us, the weather there is going to let me shoot an approach down to about 600'. That's good, cause after a week off from flying, my hands and feet can get a little rusty...