The sky of Makkah Al-Mukarramah will witness the day after tomorrow (Sunday), the second and last sun perpendicular to the Kaaba this year.
The head of the Astronomical Society in Jeddah, Majid Abu Zahra, said, “The second perpendicularity occurs with the return of the sun,” apparently “coming from the Tropic of Cancer, heading south to the equator and mediating the meridian, and the sun becomes at an altitude (90 degrees) approximately at the time of the noon call to prayer in the Sacred Mosque, where the sun will be at At 12:26:44 local time, the noon shadow becomes zero and the shadow of the Kaaba disappears.
And he indicated that the reason for the phenomenon of the sun perpendicular to the Holy Kaaba is due to the inclination of the Earth’s rotation axis at an angle of 23.5 degrees, which leads to the transition of the sun “apparently” between the Tropics of Cancer in the north and Capricorn in the south, passing through the equator during the Earth’s rotation around the sun once a year. Those located in latitudes less than 23.5 degrees north or south all witness this event twice a year, but at different times depending on the latitude of that place and are characterized by places on the globe confined between the equator and the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.
He explained that the most prominent use of this astronomical phenomenon is determining the direction towards the qiblah, especially in areas far from the city of Mecca in the Arab and Islamic countries and areas where the sun is above the horizon, useful that by using a piece of any kind installed vertically and observing its shadow at the moment of perpendicularity, the opposite direction The extension of the shadow points directly towards Mecca with an accuracy equivalent to the accuracy of digital applications for smart phones.
It is noteworthy that the first perpendicularity of the sun occurred this year 2023 during the apparent movement of the sun and its transition from the equator to the Tropic of Cancer last May, and it will return and perpendicular again to the Holy Kaaba in May next year 2024.
