Position of the Sun
![The Sun seen from Lamlash (55° 31′ 47.43″ N, 5° 05′ 59.77″ W) on 3 January 2010, at 8:53 a.m., local time](/Images/godic/202501/08/The_Sun_-_geograph.org.uk_-_16528803103.jpg")
![The path of the Sun over the celestial sphere through the course of the day for an observer at 56°N latitude. The Sun's path changes with its declination during the year. The intersections of the lines with the horizontal axis show azimuths in degrees from North where the Sun rises and sets at the summer and winter solstices.](/Images/godic/202501/08/Solar_declination.svg3103.png")
![The equation of time — above the axis a sundial will appear fast relative to a clock showing local mean time, and below the axis a sundial will appear slow.](/Images/godic/202501/08/Equation_of_time.svg3103.png")
The position of the Sun in the sky is a function of both time and the geographic coordinates of the observer on the surface of the Earth. As the Earth moves around the Sun during the course of the year, the Sun appears to move with respect to the fixed stars on the celestial sphere, along a path called the "ecliptic". The Earth's rotation about its axis causes the fixed stars to move in the sky in a way that depends on the observer's geographic latitude. The time when a given fixed star crosses the observer's meridian depends on the geographic longitude. To find the Sun's position for a given observer at a given time, one may therefore proceed in three steps: