On July 30, 2023 Jen Davis posted a version of the above sunset photo on the Burnt Store Marina Facebook Group page with the challenge for readers to guess which month it was taken. Her father was the photographer who had posted it a few years ago as part of a regular series of such images, which he always captioned with the phrase “the ending of another great day.”
Within a couple of days she received 10 responses with the vote tally being 3 for January; 1 for March; 1 for April; 1 for June; 2 for July; 1 for October and 1 for December.
Those of you who know me well may be a little surprised to learn that I saw this on Facebook. After all, I hardly ever post anything on that site and for that reason have accepted very few Friend invitations. I do in fact have an account, and I do occasionally glance at a few Groups, including the two Burnt Store Marina groups, as well as the accounts of my close family members. I hope that does not define me as a stalker!
I could not resist this sunset challenge so fired up a wonderful App I have on my cell phone named LightTrac. The App allows for modeling of where the sun sets and rises and where it will be at any exact time and date throughout the year, for any position on the globe. A realtor friend introduced me to it about 12 years ago and I’ve used it successfully to model sun exposures in connection with several real estate transactions since then, including our May 2013 BSM purchase.
By triangulating on the position of the sun, the spoil island, both sides of the gap to the harbor, the position of L dock and an estimate of where the photo was taken, the software led me to guess the first week of February or November (the sun sets in roughly the same position at both times). The software, or more likely its user, may not be entirely perfect however as Jen has subsequently reported that the photo was taken on January 19, 2021.
Below are two screen shots of the sun rising and setting in the harbor on the two extremes of December 21 (winter solstice) and June 21 (summer solstice). The dates and times are listed to the right of the map images. The sunset swings through 53 degrees from one solstice to the other.
Sadly the sunset photographer Raymond Davis, who had a condo in the Commodore Club, passed away on March 21, 2023 (the northern hemisphere spring equinox).
Published in the Beacon – October 2023