The day · Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Night · 476 min remaining
Sun 46.4° below the horizon, in the west · East African Coast
Conditions
Overcast
Full cloud cover. Light is flat and diffuse, and the day behaves like an extended dawn: fish range into shallow water, and leafy crops that would bolt in sun hold.
The whole day is usable: a good day for covering water and for transplanting.
The day, phase by phase
Current phase · 19:03–05:19
10h 16m
Night
Current sun position. Maximum altitude today: 89.1°.
No solar input at all. What happens now runs on stored heat, on the moon, and on the animals that evolved to work while nothing can see them.
Fish active
Little fish activity in this phase.
Flat light disperses fish and keeps them in shallow water through the middle of the day.
Garden species active
Ground beetlebest now
Running the soil surface after dark, taking slugs, cutworms and larvae. One of the best predators a garden has.
Earthwormbest now
At the surface after dark and in wet weather, pulling leaves down into the burrow.
Slugsbest now
Out on everything, feeding hardest between midnight and first light, and all day when it is wet.
Good conditions for transplanting and sowing: low light and low water loss.
Inactive in this phase
Honey bee · Lady beetle
Interactive
The Earth's rotation and the day at Dar es Salaam
Rotate the Earth, or use the arrows, to follow the location from sunrise to noon, sunset and night. One full rotation is one day.
Night at home
Still dark. Keep turning — home is coming round toward the sunlight.
One whole turn = 24 hours
Turn to:
Seen from above the North Pole, the Earth turns anticlockwise — west to east — so the Sun comes up in the east. One whole turn takes 24 hours.
Say it like this
- Age 2“Round and round! Where is our house? Is it day or night?”
- Age 4“When our house turns toward the Sun, it's day. When it turns away, it's night.”
- Age 6“The Sun doesn't really move across the sky — we do, riding on the turning Earth. How many hours does one whole turn take?”
Go outside: Stand in the same spot at breakfast, lunch and supper and point to where the Sun is — never look straight at it. It moves from east to west because we are turning.
Local guide
Gardening, fishing and foraging for Dar es Salaam this week.
East African Coast
The ecological region and its species.
Almanac
Day length, the moon, and air and water temperature through the year.
For Kids · The land and the sky
The week ahead for Dar es Salaam
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