Jeddah astronomer monitors sun’s perpendicularity to Kaaba

For the first time this year, it is expected that the sun will be perpendicular to the Kaaba at 12:18pm on Saturday, the Saudi state agency SPA reported.

Eng. Majid Abu Zahra, head of the Astronomical Society in Jeddah, said that at the moment of perpendicularity, the sun will be at its maximum height of about 90 degrees. This means the sun will be aligned vertically above the Kaaba, causing the Kaaba’s shadow to completely disappear from its four sides.

He indicated that the phenomenon of the sun’s perpendicularity occurs as a result of the location of the Kaaba between the equator and the Tropic of Cancer. The sun becomes lined with the Kaaba as it moves from the equator to the Tropic of Cancer during the month of May, and when the sun returns south to the equator coming from the Tropic of Cancer in July.

The sun’s perpendicularity over the Kaaba is used to determine the direction of the Qibla in areas geographically far from Makkah by planting a piece of wood or plastic vertically on the ground, where the shade is monitored and the direction of the Qibla is in the direction opposite the shade, hence the shade’s extension indicates the location of the Kaaba.