Quote Originally Posted by mohawk View Post
Thanks for the info. We live in a suburb of Minneapolis and I have no idea what degree the sun would be at noon. I'll ask the husband but he'll probably give me that funny look-like why do you want to know that? Denise
Um, there is no hard and fast answer. It changes every day of the year. Of course, it will be highest at the Summer Solstice, when the sun reaches its maximum latitude of 23 degrees and some minutes (The latitude of the Tropic of Cancer--there, when the sun is at its highest, it is directly overhead--90 degrees). So you have to know your latitude (probably 42 or 43 degrees), so the sun at its highest will probably be about 70 or 71 degrees.

If you really want to be exact, get your lat/long off your GPS if you have one. Then you'll need a Nautical Almanac (though you can find them on-line) to find out at exactly what time, at GMT, the Sun is at its highest "Declination" (latitude). You have to adjust for the time difference and then subtract the Declination from your latitude. Then subtract THAT number from 90 and you'll have the sun's angle at exactly that time.

But if your latitude is 43 degrees, the sun will be about 70 degrees....