The Earth's Tilt... by request

By Request of an avid fan. The fan wanted to know more about the earths tilt, from one of my earlier posts. In that post I talked about how the earth tilts toward/away the sun and that tilt helps to define the different season. This concept of the earth's tilt can be kind of confusing, so I'm going to try to explain it a little better.

First, I want to clarify that the earth is always tilted on its access at 23 and 1/2 degrees. This does not change, it is constant. What does change is the position of the tilt in reference to the sun.

When people say the earth is tilted away or towards the sun the aren't saying the tilt of the earth changes, the are saying in the reference from of the sun, the tilt is changing.

Imagine that there is a little green man on the sun. He can only see the earths orbit from the sun. He is going to tell you what he sees in his reference frame.

"Hi! I'm the little green man on the sun here to explain what I see."

"The earth is tilted away from me."

When we, the Northern Hemisphere, is experiencing winter, the little green man is looking at the earth and seeing it tilted away from the sun. The farthest point away from the sun is the north pole but the closest is the southern hemisphere. What defines the winter season is the indirect sunlight (energy) that we are getting in the Northern Hemisphere.

"The earth is tilted toward me."

When we are experiencing summer, the little green man is looking at the earth and seeing it tilted towards the sun. The Northern Hemisphere is closest to the sun. The Southern Hemisphere is the farthest point away. During the summer we are getting pretty direct sunlight making it the warmest time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

"The earth is tilted to the side."

When it is either Fall or Spring the little green man sees the earth tilted to it's side. The sun's energy is directed at the Equator and has split indirect light in either Southern or Northern Hemisphere. The energy isn't as strong as it is in the summer but that is what makes both Fall and Spring such mild seasons!