Zenith angle, solar declination, solar energy, shadow length, Sunrise/sunset using MS Works spreadsheets
The following spreadsheets can be used for your latitude, longitude.
Either you can work with a given time or
work with tables of intervals of time.
I am using MS Works is a program that comes with a lot of Windows computers, so
is more readily accessible by more people than MS Excel or VB .Net. In the
spreadsheets below most of the equation cells are hidden to prevent tampering,
although you can easily access them.
It is easier to work with graphs than from a data table when you want to make
measurements. It is up to you to learn to construct graphs in MS Works
Spreadsheet -- check with HELP in the menu of the spreadsheet.
To find the Latitude and Longitude where you live use the URL:
OR use a GPS.
There are 5 separate spreadsheets. If you click on a link below you
will be given a choice of either saving or opening the file. If you open
it, MS Works Spreadsheet should open automatically.
One more thing: For any length measurements such as height, shadow length,
the unit of measurement doesn't matter as long as you use the same unit for all
the length measurements -- you can use any unit you want such as m, cm, mm, km,
miles, feet, light-years.
Not so for degrees, watt/m2, etc.
(c) Height of a Structure from it's shadow length -- otherwise as in (b).
(d) Time of Day from Shadow length and height of structure -- Also day of the year from shadow length and height of structure.
(e) SunRise, SunSet for a range of days.
Here is a VB. Net version of all the above -- it is all in one. Click the right mouse button and use "Save Target As" to save this program.