At 12:17 pm on April 25, Bengaluru experienced a ‘Zero Shadow Day’, when vertical objects appear to cast no shadow. This was because the sun was at its zenith, and so the shadow was directly under the object.
Key points
- On April 25, 2023, the Sun reaches exactly overhead at (12:17 pm) in Bengaluru and at all places along the 13° north Latitude. The shadow of any vertical object would disappear at that instant. Zero Shadow Day occurs on different days in places away from 13° latitude.
- For every point on Earth between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, there are two Zero Shadow Days a year.
- One falls during the Uttarayan when the Sun moves northwards, and the other is during Dakshinayan when the Sun moves southwards.
- Uttarayan (movement of the Sun from south to north from winter solstice to summer solstice) and Dakshinayan (back from north to south) happen because Earth’s rotation axis is tilted at an angle of roughly 23.5° to the axis of revolution around the Sun.
- The Sun’s location moves from 23.5°N to 23.5°S of Earth’s equator and back.
- All places whose latitude equals the angle between the Sun’s location and the equator on that day experience zero shadow day, with the shadow beneath an object at local noon.
