Sundial

Calculating the Hours of Sunlight in a day based on the latitude of a location.

Sundial, can be used with any AMD compatibile loader, Dojo, or as a standalone module loaded via standard script tags.

Loading Via an AMD Loader

require(["Sundial"], function(Sun){
         var s = new Sun();       
         s.date = new Date(2012, 5, 21); // 2012 is a leap year
         // Takes one argument which is the latitude of the location
         s.getDaylightHours(50); // Returns 16.15 - Longest day of the year
         s.getTotalDaylightHoursInYear(50); // Returns 4404.769999999997 
         
         s.date = new Date(2013, 5, 21); // 2013 is not a leap year
         s.getTotalDaylightHoursInYear(50); // Returns 4396.819999999999 
    });

Sundial should be accurate to 0.0001 minutes and takes into account the axial tilt of the earth, and the equation of time. Because of this, if you are checking the hours of sunlight for consecutive years, you will notice that it fluctuates by up to ten minutes for non leap years, and several hours for leap years.

Loading Via Normal Script Tags

You can load Sundial normally, by just including the script to your page. It automatically creates a single global object called Sun.

<script type="text/javascript" src="/path/to/Sun.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
     Sun.date =  new Date(2012, 5, 21);
     Sun.getDaylightHours( 50 ); // Returns 16.15
</script>

Available Methods

The Two Main Methods

Both of these functions take a target latitude. If no date has been set, then they will use the current locale date. You can select a new date, by using Sun.date = new Date(2012, 5, 21);

getTotalDaylightHoursInYear(/* latitude */ lat )

getDaylightHours(/* latitude */ lat )

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Other Helper and pseudo-private Methods

• getDate() / `setDate( /* Date() */ date )
• getJulianDays() Returns the Julian Days passed based on the current Sun.date
• getEquationOfTime() - The equation of time is the difference between apparent solar time and mean solar time.
• _getRightAscension(/* Time Factor */ T)
• _getSunsMeanLongitude(/* Time Factor */ T) - Calculate the Mean Longitude of the Sun
• _getDeltaPSI(/* Time Factor */ T) - Returns the nutation in ecliptical longitude expressed in degrees.
• _getObliquity(/* Time Factor */ T) - Calculate Earths Obliquity Nutation

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Any questions, or bugs observed, please let me know.