Zero Shadow Day
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. On April 25, 2023, the Sun reaches exactly overhead at (12:17 pm) in Bengaluru and at all places along the 130॰ north Latitude. The shadow of any vertical object would disappear at that instant. 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. The Zero Shadow Day is restricted to locations between the tropics, and so places north of Ranchi in India are out of it. 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…
