What makes sunrise and sunset times?

[conuly]

Oh, don't give me "earth's rotation" and "angle of the sun", I know that! But...

Look, I googled to find what time sunset was in NYC, found out that today it's 4:55. Sunrise was at 7:17 Okay, fine.

But in Anchorage it's sunrise at 9:52, but sunset only at 4:27. The sun rises two hours later there, but it only sets about thirty minutes earlier? I'd always assumed it was constant - if it rises an hour later, it sets an hour earlier, that sort of thing. And over in Honalulu the sun rose at 7:12 (barely earlier than here in NYC) but it doesn't set until 6:12. Maybe my problem is in viewing my own city as the default, and if I viewed these times as varying from the equator (or the North Pole) they'd make sense? I understand that summer and winter are more dramatic closer to the poles, and less dramatic close to the equator, but... like I said, I thought you took from both sides of noon more or less evenly wherever you were.

Comments

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Okay, here ya go - what you need is the US Naval Observatory Data services (http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/). Everything you want to know is there. Especially note the Duration of Daylight/Darkness Table for One Year feature - compare the table for Anchorage, AK with Miami, FL; you'll see how the difference works. There are good explanations for why it works that way in their Astronomical Information (http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/) section.

Have fun!