How to Point in the Direction of Earth’s Orbit

Quick!...walk outside and point in the direction of earth’s orbit around the sun.  Can you do it?  Come now, the earth has been orbiting the sun for billions of years…and certainly for every year since you were born.  If you were in a car going 65 miles per hour, you could point in the direction you are heading.  Why can’t you point in the direction that your own earth is heading, particularly when you consider we are orbiting at a rate of nearly 67 THOUSAND MILES PER HOUR around the sun!

(And to the 25% of Americans who didn’t know this:  YES, the earth orbits the sun, and not the other way around).

So how do we figure our direction of travel?  Here’s how:

Assume for the moment you are standing at the equator.  

In the early morning, when the earth rotates around so that the sun is just barely visible over the eastern horizon (i.e. “sunrise”), point straight up.  THAT’s the direction of our orbit.

Or, at high noon, with the sun directly overhead, point due west just over the horizon.  THAT’s our direction of travel.

Direction of Earth's Orbit (at the equator)

At “sundown”, when the sun is just barely visible on the western horizon, point straight down towards the center of the earth.  THAT’s our direction of travel.

If your are not on the equator, but instead in the northern hemisphere for example, then you need to adjust where you point.

At "sunrise", don’t point straight up, you are just pointing to a random point in space.  Instead, face due south (the sun over your left shoulder) and point halfway between the horizon and straight up.  This is roughly the direction of travel.

At high noon, point due west.  This is close enough.

At “sundown”, point to the ground about halfway between straight down (center of the earth)  and due north.

For Southern Hemisphere folks, the process is similar only swapping south with north, etc.

DISCLAIMER:  The earth is slightly tilted on our axis as we continue our 24 hours of rotation. Hence, some adjustments to your pointing direction may be required.  This is why the above pointing directions are “close enough”.

Now here is a real challenge, of which I am still working on:  What direction do you point when you are standing at the North Pole?  There is no east or west…there’s only south.  And some periods of the year when the sun never even “sets”.  How do you figure our orbital direction?

Stay Tuned…