Sun Exactly Overhead!

Today, at noon, on the way to Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, the captain announced that we were crossing the spot where the sun was exactly overhead. Sure enough, out on the back deck, we found ourselves standing directly in our own shadows. A glass on a table cast no shadow at all. .... it was directly under the glass.

The sun is precisely overhead at the equator just twice a year ... the mid summer and mid winter equinoxes. Then as the Earth tilts on its axis to make seasons, it is North of the equator or South of it. Today the Viking Sun is just far enough North to be spot under it at mid day.