Is it possible, a day with a shadow? Twice a year – in April and August – Costa Rica is one those countries that experiences the astronomical even known as ‘Sun Overhead’ (Sol Cenital in Spanish), where the sun is directly overhead at “high-noon”.
The sun overhead when the sun is exactly located directly over the equator, to the extent that every shadow of objects on the earths surface disappears.
Around noon, every day until April 18, in Costa Rica your shadow will be gone around 11:30am. Ok, not really gone, but undetectable when the sun’s rays fall perpendicularly over our heads – in a 90 ° angle – so the shadow “disappear” and we can not see it.
San Jose, Alajuela and Heredia will see the effect on April 16.
This is due to the shifting tilt of the earth’s axis, putting the sun directly overhead in places near the equator, between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
The Foundation for the National Centre of Science and Technology (Fundación para el Centro Nacional de la Ciencia y la Tecnología), CIENTEC, is spearheading a campaign invites Costa Ricans to track the sun overhead in their communities and share their results. See Sol Cenital in Costa Rica.
According to the experts, the phenomenon does not have any consequences, however, people not to expose themselves to the sun for long periods.
