Sun Day at the Springfield Museums
At the Springfield Science Museum, Sun Day invites curiosity about our closest star. Using filtered telescopes on the Quadrangle and live observatory feeds, participants can safely look for solar flares and sunspots. If clouds roll in, past solar activity and telescope demos offer a detailed look at the Sun’s changing surface. These real-time views help make sense of how the Sun appears to move across the sky throughout the year, tracing a figure-eight shape known as the analemma. That shifting path, shaped by Earth’s tilt and orbit, guided early efforts to track time and understand the seasons, connecting skywatching with daily life.
Self-Directed Learning
Why does the Sun appear in a different spot each day? Discover the answer by exploring how Earth’s axial tilt and elliptical orbit combine to create the analemma, the figure-eight pattern the Sun traces across the sky throughout the year. Learn how this shifting solar position shapes our seasons and influenced the development of modern timekeeping. Paired with a community event like Sun-Day, this video supports self-directed learning in astronomy, Earth science, physics, and history.
