Molson Hart

In the southern hemisphere, the sun is above a building casting a shadow. If you're observing this from the sun, the earth rotates to the right. The shadow starts at around 9 AM and finishes around 3 pm. Shadow went counterclockwise.

It turns out that, if you are near the equator, at certain times of the year, because of the tilt on the earth's axis, you seasonally (i.e. winter/summer) can go from counterclockwise shadows to clockwise shadows and vice versa.

So, for example, if you're in Caracas, Venezuela (north of the equator). For most of the year your shadows go clock wise, but during the peak of summer the earth tilts you down below the median of the sphere and you end up "below the sun" giving you counterclockwise shadows.

But here is what I do not understand. I don't see how this could be true without: 1. It being an illusion 2. The earth pulling a DJ scratch (going east then west then back east) 3. The sun popping up and down What am I missing/not understanding here?https://twitter.com/patrickc/status/1138615790012370944 …

This was cited as the reason for this occurring, but I can't find any evidence that the sun goes into retrograde (or the earth goes into retrograde from the vantage point of the sun). So basically I don't get it.https://twitter.com/luismbat/status/1138624307217588224 …

Technically, every day a year, every city close enough to the equator to experience a seasonal change in shadow direction, will have its shadows switch direction, but it would basically be unobservable because on that day the sun's position would mean shadows wouldn't rotate.