Figure A. The noontime position of the Sun in the sky, plotted over a year, produces a figure eight-shaped curve known as the analemma. Earth's elliptical orbit produces the curve of the analemma. Its lowest and highest points are, respectively, the winter and summer solstices. The vertical line running through the analemma is the meridian. This view shows the Sun at noon on 4 January 2007, the day of perihelion ñ Earth's closest approach to the Sun.
