Noon

Noon is the part of the day around the middle of the daytime period, commonly associated with 12:00 on a clock. In everyday language, it is often used to mean midday, the time between morning and afternoon. However, noon does not always occur when the Sun is exactly at its highest point in the sky. The exact moment of solar noon depends on the location, the date, and the way clocks are set.

Solar noon occurs when the Sun crosses the local meridian, an imaginary line running from north to south across the sky, and reaches its highest altitude for that day at that location. Because Earth rotates on its axis and orbits the Sun along a slightly uneven path, solar noon can differ from 12:00 by several minutes or more, depending on the place and date.

Noon is useful for organizing daily activities and understanding the passage of time. In many societies, it marks an approximate transition from the morning to the afternoon and may coincide with a midday meal or a pause in the day's activities. The amount of daylight and the Sun's height at noon vary with latitude and season.

Near the equator, the Sun can be very high in the sky at certain times of year, while at higher latitudes it may remain much lower, especially during winter. Noon should therefore be distinguished from the simple clock reading of 12:00 and from solar noon. Clocks show civil time according to a time zone and its rules, whereas solar noon is defined by the Sun's position in the local sky. Understanding this difference helps explain why the Sun is not necessarily highest when a clock shows exactly twelve.