Date of event:
May - 2023
Description :
The HDFC School, Bengaluru, believes in providing first hand experiential learning to its students and to explain the astronomical phenomenon called ‘Zero Shadow Day’ which was on the Tuesday, 25 April, 2023 at 12.17 PM.
Students of Grades IX to XI were taken out to the ground to observe shadows of vertical objects disappear at the prescribed time.
The lack of shadow is beautiful too. And it happens twice a year, for places between +23.5 and -23.5 degrees latitude. The Sun is almost never exactly overhead at noon, but usually transits a bit lower in altitude, a bit to the north or a bit to the south. We have all studied in school that the Earth~s rotation axis is inclined at 23.5 degrees to the plane of its revolution around the Sun, which is why we have seasons. This also means that the Sun, in its highest point of the day, will move from 23.5 degrees south of the celestial equator to 23.5 degrees north of the equator (Uttarayan), and back again (Dakshinayan), in a year. Of course, the northern most and southern most points are the two solstices, and the crossing of the Sun across the equator are the two equinoxes.
However, very few of us can say that we have personally witnessed this Zero Shadow Phenomenon but after this experience our students can proudly proclaim that their knowledge about this remarkable thing is not merely borrowed from a book because they experienced it for themselves.
