Latest news with #TropicofCapricorn
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
'Zero shadow day' makes photos look like AI
Two days a year, locations near the tropics experience a usual phenomenon that causes shadows to vanish, making photos look fake. 'Zero shadow day' occurs when the sun is directly overhead, something that is only possible between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn due to the Earth's tilt. At the precise moment when the sun is at the highest point in the sky, objects appear as though they do not have a shadow. However, that is not necessarily the case. Instead, shadows are cast straight down, rather than being cast at an angle like they are most days of the year. A person standing still would only have a shadow at their feet. This can make photos of objects look unnatural, as if they were created by AI. Hawaii is the only state in the U.S. that experiences zero shadow day, and is known locally as Lahaian Noon. The exact date of Lahaian Noon varies across the island, but generally occurs once between May 14 and May 30, and again between July 11 and July 27. Mexico City, Mexico; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Chennai, Mumbai and Bengaluru, India, are a handful of cities around the globe that experience zero shadow day twice a year. The only catch is that the event only lasts for a few minutes, so one poorly timed cloud could spoil the show.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
New moon of May 2025 leaves the night sky dark to see the summer constellations tonight
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The new moon of May occurs on May 26. Two days later the moon will make a close pass to Jupiter in the evening sky, and the summer constellations will be rising. New moons happen when the moon is directly between Earth and the sun. They share a celestial longitude (called right ascension by astronomers), a projection of the Earth's longitude lines on the sky measured eastward from the point where the sun crosses the celestial equator. This position is also called a conjunction. If the sun and the moon line up perfectly the result is a solar eclipse; but that does not happen most of the time, as the moon's orbit is tilted 5 degrees relative to Earth's orbit. (The next solar eclipse is due on Sept. 21). That means seeing the new moon isn't possible, due to the sun's glare. Even if the sun were blocked, the moon would be facing away from us, showing the dark side, which would just be black on a black background. Lunar phases are determined by the moon's position, rather than one's position on Earth, so to find the time of a lunar phase one only needs to count the hours difference from Universal Coordinated Time in London to whatever time zone. So, when the moon reaches the new phase in New York, it will do so at 8:02 p.m. on May 26, at 11:02 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (0302 UTC May 27), according to the U.S. Naval Observatory. It will do so at 8:02 p.m. (May 26) in Los Angeles, 4:02 a.m. May 27 in Paris, and 12:02 p.m. May 27 in Tokyo. On May 26 the sun sets at 8:16 p.m. in New York, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory; the longer days of the Northern Hemisphere late spring and summer months start to become apparent. Sunset actually gets earlier as one moves south because in the tropics, between latitudes 23.5 degrees north, the Tropic of Cancer, and 23.5 degrees south, the Tropic of Capricorn, the day length doesn't change much over the course of the year the way it does in more northerly or southerly regions. In Miami, which is only about two degrees north of the Tropical latitudes, sunset on May 26 is at 8:05 p.m. The reverse is true in the Southern Hemisphere where days are getting shorter – sunset in Buenos Aires is at 5:52 p.m. local time. In New York, a half hour after sunset, one might still be able to catch Jupiter, which will be about 10 degrees high in the west (the width of your fist at arm's length equals around 10 degrees in the sky). The sky will still be a little bit light as civil twilight, when the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon, ends at 8:49 p.m. Jupiter will therefore be hard to see, but as the sky gets darker it will start to come out. It won't be up for long, though; the planet sets at 9:54 p.m. local time. TOP TELESCOPE PICK: Want to see the wonders of the night sky? The Celestron NexStar 4SE is ideal for beginners wanting quality, reliable and quick views of celestial objects. For a more in-depth look at our Celestron NexStar 4SE review. Mars will be about halfway up the sky – 44 degrees high – in the southwest at about 9 p.m. Eastern Time, and sets at 1:02 a.m. May 27. The planet is distinctly reddish, though dimmer than usual as it is in a part of its orbit that is receding from Earth. It is still relatively bright, however, and its steady light makes it easily recognizable near stars that twinkle. Saturn, in the constellation Aquarius, rises at 2:42 a.m. May 27, and Venus follows at 3:29 a.m. By 4:30 a.m. Saturn and Venus will be respectively 19 degrees and 11 degrees high, with Venus almost due east and Saturn more to the southeast. Sunrise in New York City is at 5:29 a.m. On May 28 the conjunction of the moon and Jupiter will happen at 9:13 a.m. in New York, so the moment when the two bodies are at closest approach to each other won't be observable from there. But by 9:00 p.m. that evening the thin crescent moon will be low in the western sky and Jupiter will appear almost directly below it. The sun's lingering light will make it a challenging observation; with a clear sky and unobstructed horizon one should be able to make them both out. The conjunction will be more visible in Asia, where it happens late enough that the day-old moon, appearing as a thin crescent, and Jupiter are both above the horizon still as the sky is darkening. In Dhaka, Bangladesh, for example, sunset is at 6:41 p.m. local time and the moon and Jupiter will become visible at about 7:00 p.m. The conjunction itself is at 7:13 p.m. local time according to Jupiter sets at 8:04 p.m. from Dhaka, and the moon will look as though it is directly above Jupiter and slightly to the left. From Yangon, Myanmar, the conjunction occurs at 7:13 p.m. local time, and Jupiter is 18 degrees high at sunset, which is at 6:33 p.m. At the moment of conjunction, the planet will be 9 degrees above the horizon, accompanied by the thin crescent moon on the right. If you're looking for a telescope or binoculars to observe planets in the night sky, our guides for the best binoculars deals and the best telescope deals now can help. Our guides on the best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography can also help you prepare to capture the next skywatching sight. In mid-northern latitudes, late May is when the days get significantly longer than in the spring. In such locales it doesn't get fully dark (to the eye) until at least 9:30 p.m. – in New York City astronomical twilight, when the sun is between 12 and 18 degrees below the horizon and the last of the daylight disappears, ends at 10:15 p.m. on May 26. At 10 p.m., as one can look southwest and see Mars, which will be among the stars of Leo the Lion. Leo will be about halfway to the zenith in the sky at this hour. Regulus, Leo's alpha star, will be to the left of Mars, and that marks the lower right corner of the rough trapezoid formed by the Lion's body and tail. If one looks above Regulus, one sees Gamma Leonis, or Algieba, the Lion's front shoulder, and from there one can usually spot the "sickle" that is the head and mane. To the left and up from Regulus and Algieba is Delta Leonis (Zosma). If one looks left of Zosma one will see Denebola, or Beta Leonis, the end of the Lion's tail. Denebola and Zosma form a right triangle with Theta Leonis, or Al Haratan, the latter of which is the Lion's hindquarters. Looking north, one can orient with the Big Dipper, almost directly above the northern horizon (at 10 p.m. it will be a bit to the left, in the north-northwestern direction). The bowl will be almost upside down and the two stars that point to Polaris, the pole star, are on the left and lower side of the bowl. The stars are called Dubhe and Merak, and Dubhe is the one closer to Polaris – one finds Polaris by making a line between the two and continuing until one reaches Polaris. Following the handle of the Dipper one can "arc to Arcturus" –a sweeping motion along the curve of the handle gets you there, to the brightest star in Boötes, the Herdsman. Continuing that arc one hits Spica, the brightest star in Virgo. If one draws a line between Dubhe and Merak away from Polaris one reaches Leo. In the East, Vega, the bright star of Lyra, the Lyre, is about 30 degrees high. It is bright enough that even in light-polluted areas it is distinct. Vega is one of the three stars of the Summer Triangle, the others are Deneb, the brightest star in Cygnus, the Swan, and Altair, the eye of the Eagle. By 10 p.m. Deneb is left and down from Vega, about 10 degrees above the horizon (it actually rises just after 7:00 p.m. in mid-northern latitudes, but the sky is too bright to see it until later). Altair rises at 9:54 p.m. local time in New York, and by midnight it is 23 degrees high in the east. The Summer Triangle's narrowest point always faces southward, (it is almost a right triangle with the 90-degree angle at Deneb) so it is a good direction finder, especially as it gets higher in the sky. By midnight, looking southeast, about 21 degrees high (depending on how far north or south one is) one will see Antares, the brightest star (the "heart") of Scorpius, the Scorpion. Above Antares are three medium-bright stars that form Scorpius' head and claws. From darker-sky locations, above and to the left of Scorpius is the fainter (but much larger) constellation Ophiuchus, the Serpent Holder or Healer. Ophiuchus can be recognized by a long, almost rectangular pentagon of medium-to-faint stars that extends above Scorpius; initially (at about midnight) he will appear to be lying on his side. On either side of Ophiuchus are the constellations Serpens Caput and Serpens Cauda, the head (Caput) and the tail (Cauda) of the serpents Ophiuchus holds. In the southern hemisphere, days are getting shorter. In Santiago, Chile, for example, the sun sets early, at 5:44 p.m. local time on May 26. That means the sky gets dark enough to see stars by 6:30 to 7:00 p.m. local time. Observers in mid-southern latitudes can see Scorpius in the east-southeast, with Antares about 15 degrees above the horizon. Looking more directly southeast, about 43 degrees high is Alpha Centauri, also called Rigil Kentaurus, our nearest stellar neighbor. Rigil Kentaurus marks the front legs of the Centaur. The Centaur represents (per Ovid) Chiron, the centaur who according to legend taught Heracles (Hercules), Jason, and Theseus. Just above Alpha Centauri is Hadar (Beta Centauri) and looking upwards a little further is the Southern Cross (Crux). There is no pole star in the southern skies, but Crux points towards the southern celestial pole. Turning right towards the southwest, one can see Canopus at about the same altitude as the Cross; it's the brightest star in Carina, the Ship's Keel. From Carina in the Keel, as one looks to the right, towards the west one will see Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, and the alpha star of Canis Major, the Bog Dog. Between the Dog and Canopus, and above both, is Puppis, the Poop Deck. Puppis and Carina are two of three modern constellations that once made up Argo, the ship of Jason. The third constellation is Vela, an oval of seven stars (one can see nine if the sky is dark) that sits above Carina and Puppis.
Sydney Morning Herald
25-05-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
Where does the outback actually begin? Even Tourism Australia isn't sure
Tassie's not the outback. Neither is Canberra. Uluru – that irresistible drawcard in the geographic and spiritual heart of Australia – most definitely is. Between those far-flung certainties are hundreds of thousands of square kilometres that aren't as easy to define, even if you're an Australian who is extremely familiar with this 'wide brown land' (brown? Surely Dorothea Mackellar meant 'red'). No wonder you find odd questions on Google such as 'what city is near the outback in Australia?' and 'what is the real outback in Australia?' Strewth. The outback is real, all right, but also myth and legend, as hard to grasp as a shimmering mirage. So where does the outback begin and end? I started pondering this question a few years back after chortling over a cover line on an esteemed weekly magazine. It boldly stated that Biloela was in outback Queensland. Having spent part of my childhood in the nearby town of Monto, I knew that was wildly untrue. Biloela is surrounded by verdant countryside and is a mere 100 kilometres from the coast as the crow flies. In less than two hours, you can drive north to the thriving city of Rockhampton – Australia's Beef Capital - and join its throng of 85,000 residents. Only a headline writer in Sydney would think Biloela is in the outback. Mount Isa caravan park co-owner and outback ambassador for Drive Queensland, Kylie Rixon, has thoughts on the subject. 'We're not the bush, we're not the country – we're the outback,' she tells me, when describing her remote mining community that's roughly halfway between Darwin and Brisbane. 'The outback to me is a feeling which is hard to put into words. It's that sense of community, that calmness, the serenity, the isolation, which a lot of the time is not geographical. 'We are geographically isolated but, as far as community goes, we're far from isolated. Because we all live so remotely, our friends become our family and our sporting teams become our Christmas barbecues. That's why we've got such a strong community with sporting groups and so on, because they do become our little outback families. All of that stuff contributes to a society that's really welcoming and nurturing and friendly.' According to a Tourism Australia article titled 'Guide to the Outback', some 81 per cent of our country can call itself the outback but it's also a place with 'no defined borders'. More helpfully, it adds that the outback typically falls into three climate categories: arid, semi-arid and north of the Tropic of Capricorn, a latitudinal line that runs through Rockhampton's southern suburbs (perhaps that headline-writer wasn't so far off after all). Regional coastal cities such as Townsville and Cairns aren't the outback but Broken Hill, in Far West NSW, is part of the mysterious landscape that lies somewhere beyond the 'back of Bourke'.
The Age
25-05-2025
- The Age
Where does the outback actually begin? Even Tourism Australia isn't sure
Tassie's not the outback. Neither is Canberra. Uluru – that irresistible drawcard in the geographic and spiritual heart of Australia – most definitely is. Between those far-flung certainties are hundreds of thousands of square kilometres that aren't as easy to define, even if you're an Australian who is extremely familiar with this 'wide brown land' (brown? Surely Dorothea Mackellar meant 'red'). No wonder you find odd questions on Google such as 'what city is near the outback in Australia?' and 'what is the real outback in Australia?' Strewth. The outback is real, all right, but also myth and legend, as hard to grasp as a shimmering mirage. So where does the outback begin and end? I started pondering this question a few years back after chortling over a cover line on an esteemed weekly magazine. It boldly stated that Biloela was in outback Queensland. Having spent part of my childhood in the nearby town of Monto, I knew that was wildly untrue. Biloela is surrounded by verdant countryside and is a mere 100 kilometres from the coast as the crow flies. In less than two hours, you can drive north to the thriving city of Rockhampton – Australia's Beef Capital - and join its throng of 85,000 residents. Only a headline writer in Sydney would think Biloela is in the outback. Mount Isa caravan park co-owner and outback ambassador for Drive Queensland, Kylie Rixon, has thoughts on the subject. 'We're not the bush, we're not the country – we're the outback,' she tells me, when describing her remote mining community that's roughly halfway between Darwin and Brisbane. 'The outback to me is a feeling which is hard to put into words. It's that sense of community, that calmness, the serenity, the isolation, which a lot of the time is not geographical. 'We are geographically isolated but, as far as community goes, we're far from isolated. Because we all live so remotely, our friends become our family and our sporting teams become our Christmas barbecues. That's why we've got such a strong community with sporting groups and so on, because they do become our little outback families. All of that stuff contributes to a society that's really welcoming and nurturing and friendly.' According to a Tourism Australia article titled 'Guide to the Outback', some 81 per cent of our country can call itself the outback but it's also a place with 'no defined borders'. More helpfully, it adds that the outback typically falls into three climate categories: arid, semi-arid and north of the Tropic of Capricorn, a latitudinal line that runs through Rockhampton's southern suburbs (perhaps that headline-writer wasn't so far off after all). Regional coastal cities such as Townsville and Cairns aren't the outback but Broken Hill, in Far West NSW, is part of the mysterious landscape that lies somewhere beyond the 'back of Bourke'.
Telegraph
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Trump's ‘white genocide' claims ignore the real danger facing South Africa
Amid green hills near the South African town of Levubu, Louis Cloete and his wife, Ina, raised their children on a farm that had been in the family for three generations. This lushly fertile region, just north of the Tropic of Capricorn, is a heartland for growing tropical fruit and nuts. After they retired and their son and two daughters left home, Louis and Ina stayed on the farm as tenants. Their idyll ended one afternoon in April 2022 when intruders burst in and attacked the pair, then aged 74 and 66. The attackers murdered Louis and Ina, white farmers, before ransacking the homestead for valuables and setting it ablaze. The corpses of the couple were later found burnt beyond recognition inside the ruins of their home. All around lay the charred remains of the life they had made together, including dozens of damaged hunting trophies in what was once the living room. Louis and Ina were residing on a remote farm in a country with one of the world's highest rates of violent crime, but relations said they had always felt safe. 'I often raised the issue with her of them being in a vulnerable situation all by themselves on the farm,' Ina's brother, Jurie Schoeman, later told the Sunday Times of South Africa. 'She was positive, she got along with local people,' he said, adding that the couple were both fluent in the Venda language spoken in the area. The fate of Louis and Ina – and many others like them – has taken on a new significance since Donald Trump's highly charged encounter with Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African president, in the Oval Office on Wednesday. Trump challenged his visitor about the supposed persecution of white South Africans in general and white farmers in particular, producing a sheaf of news stories and a carefully prepared video. Although he did not use the word during this meeting, Trump has previously spoken of an alleged 'genocide' of white farmers in South Africa. In a stroke of political theatre, Trump held up the news reports of various crimes committed against white South Africans and summarised their contents. 'Death, death – horrible – death, death,' he intoned as he went through each example. Ramaphosa, by contrast, calmly and deliberately rebutted the president's charges. So what is the truth? How should the world view Trump's accusations? One chilling fact is that about 75 people are murdered in South Africa every day, compared with fewer than two in England and Wales, even though their respective populations are similar. The South African police recorded a total of 27,621 murders in 2023-24 – that amounts to some 45 people per 100,000. Yet black South Africans comprised the great majority of these victims. The number of killings known to have taken place on farms, meanwhile, is relatively low. In the last three months of 2024, police registered nearly 7,000 murders, of which 12 happened on farms. The the race of the victims was not recorded, but one was a farmer; the remainder were either farm-workers or people staying on farms, while one was a security guard. Throughout 2023, there were 49 murders on farms, with some of those victims being black workers. AfriForum, a South African campaign group representing the white Afrikaner minority, recorded nine farm murders in the first quarter of 2023, compared with 11 and seven in the same periods of 2022 and 2021 respectively. Presented with these numbers, scarcely anyone in South Africa would apply a word like 'genocide'. Yes, white farmers have been murdered, but so have thousands of others. The farmers are not being systematically targeted for a concerted campaign because of their race; instead, they have fallen prey to the lawlessness that often prevails across the country. Gareth Newham, who runs a justice and violence prevention programme at the Institute for Security Studies in the capital, Pretoria, describes the idea of a 'white genocide' as 'completely false'. The overwhelming majority of murder victims in South Africa were, he says, young and poor black men. 'White people – and white farmers – are the least at risk of violent crime and murder compared to other racial or ethnic groups in South Africa,' says Newham. 'White people, generally, are far wealthier, own more land and have a far better quality of life than black people. This would not be the case if there was a 'white genocide' taking place.' Newham says that robbery was the main motive for the great majority of farm attacks. Any evidence of a racial or political motive, such as slogans written on walls or statements made by the attackers, was 'exceedingly rare,' he adds. No political party in South Africa, including those representing Afrikaners, alleges that a 'genocide' is underway. Nor do groups representing farmers themselves. 'If a murder is on a farm, we call it a farm murder,' says Johann Kotzé, the head of Agri SA, a farmers' lobby group. 'But remember, that same night somebody was also murdered in the little township where the farm workers came from.' Trump's presentation in the Oval Office also contained glaring inaccuracies. The first case study that he chose to present to the world concerned an attack on Jan Jurgens, a 73-year-old white farmer. True enough, Jurgens was assaulted and tied up on his farm last week. But, contrary to Trump, he was not murdered: he is still alive. One white farmer in Mpumalanga province tells The Telegraph: 'Yes, farmers are murdered, but so is everyone else. Being isolated on farms may increase the risk of attacks, but this is not genocide, but rather straight criminality.' Yet, if Trump's main charge is demonstrably false, people have every right to be alarmed by the incendiary rhetoric of some South African politicians. Julius Malema, the firebrand leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, has addressed mass rallies with the slogan: 'Kill the farmer! Kill the Boer!' He has led crowds of thousands in chants of 'shoot to kill'. Malema is an opposition politician who has never held office and his party won just 10.8 per cent of the vote at the last election. And, however distasteful it sounds, the slogan 'Kill the farmer! Kill the Boer' was frequently heard during the struggle against apartheid. Even so, Malema's rhetoric in a country with a bitter history of racial conflict must inevitably stir a sense of threat. That is particularly true when, more than 30 years after the end of apartheid, over a third of all South Africans are jobless, rising to about 60 per cent for the young. After years of economic stagnation, millions of people endure absolute poverty in squalid townships. Meanwhile, the African Nation Congress's (ANC) shameless corruption has indelibly tarnished South Africa's Mandela-era image as a rainbow nation and symbol of hope. The presidency of Jacob Zuma between 2009 and 2018 degenerated into a festival of brazen looting, during which the state was captured and bled dry by a kleptocratic elite. In that era, no less than £20 billion was stolen from government coffers and public enterprises. But the ANC paid the price when it lost its parliamentary majority in last year's election. Today, Ramaphosa leads a coalition government of 10 political parties, including the Democratic Alliance (DA), which is supported by most white voters. John Steenhuisen, the DA's (white) leader represents the interests of farmers as agriculture minister. Leon Schreiber, another (white) DA politician, serves as Home Affairs minister. The real danger facing South Africa is not Trump's false and inflammatory accusations. Instead, the greatest risk is that Ramaphosa's new government will fail to achieve the economic transformation that must happen if jobs are to be created and poverty reduced. 'As the unemployed ranks swell, of which a lot of the blame can be laid squarely at the door of the ANC,' says the white farmer from Mpumlanga, 'criminality increases and more and more desperate people resort to desperate measures.' Unless this generation of South African leaders can drag the country out of its malaise, the number of desperate people will grow. And all the time, Malema is waiting in the wings.
