Daylight today
Planet, place, time of year
Planet
Where you are
Seasons come from tilt, not distance
The tilt decides your daylight
The planet spins on a tilted axis that keeps pointing the same way all year. So for half the orbit your hemisphere leans toward the sun (long days, high sun), and for the other half it leans away.
Where we are in the orbit
The axis keeps pointing the same way in space. On one side of the orbit the north leans toward the sun, half a year later it leans away.
01
Tilt leans you toward the sun, then away
While your hemisphere leans sunward, the sun climbs higher and stays up longer. Half a year later it's the other way round.
02
High sun is strong sun
Light arriving steeply packs more energy into each square metre. Low winter sun spreads the same light thin.
03
Not the distance
Earth is closest to the sun in early January, in northern winter. Set the tilt to 0° and every day is 12 hours, everywhere.
04
Polar day, polar night
Past the polar circle (90° minus the tilt) the sun can stay up for 24 h or not rise at all. On Uranus that's most of the planet.