thx for that Stephen.

There's something with regards to Earth that i'm not understanding. Assuming that the Earth was not tilting, we will have 12hrs day and 12 hours night at the equator right? But isn't this not taking into account of the Earth's orbital period?

What i'm thinking is that our Earth orbits the sun in a year and rotates once in 24 hrs. If we were to speed up the Earth's orbital period to 24hrs, Earth will be in sync with the Sun, and there will be no nights and days. Alternatively, we can slow down the Earth's spin to a year to produce the same effect. At the other end of the scale, the Earth can just sit there spinning, without orbiting. The fact that it's orbiting and spinning should mean that the nights and days even on the equator are less exact than 12hrs each. Is this the case?

I think there's something pretty fundamental that i'm missing out here, but then i have very little knowledge of astronomy in general. thx


Dar