Sunset in Cozumel

[johnsona1503]

We leave for Coz in 6 days, so I was looking at SCC web cam and watched the sun set and the subsequent darkeness. Then I realized Coz is in the Central time zone and here in Oklahoma the sun is just now setting almost 50 minutes later. After 4 trips to Playa as a non diver I did not notice that much difference in the time of sunset and being in the same time zone and of course watching the difference in real time really points it out. The sunset here is really nice just after the Tornados blow thru and the sky clears and your house is still standing. As a non diver the most important thing was if they had drink service on the beach. Now I have schedule and something fantastic to look forward too.

Just means my first night practice ocean shore dive can start that much earlier.

See ya in Coz...

 

[sharky60]

yes, Coz being so much closer to the equator than we are, the sun does set sooner than it does for us in the Southwest and even sooner for those further south.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

It is not just the equator difference, indeed that is not much of a factor. The big difference is that the Yucatan Peninsula juts out into the Caribbean to the East and is just a few miles from Cuba. Just look at a globe and you will see that Cozumel and the Yucatan is about 1000 miles east of Mexico City.

If it were not so closely connected economically with the rest of Mexico it would indeed be on the Eastern Time Zone. This does create all kinds of problems for us trying to support cruise ship divers as they are usually on Cruise Ship Time which is Eastern Time Zone, yet our clocks are "by law" Central Time Zone".

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers


Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

 

[Basscat]

Here's a sunset last August just south of the lighthouse, a little south of SCC. Probably as close to Heaven as I'll ever get.... ;-) Enjoy your trip!

 

[johnsona1503]

It is not just the equator difference, indeed that is not much of a factor. The big difference is that the Yucatan Peninsula juts out into the Caribbean to the East and is just a few miles from Cuba. Just look at a globe and you will see that Cozumel and the Yucatan is about 1000 miles east of Mexico City.

If it were not so closely connected economically with the rest of Mexico it would indeed be on the Eastern Time Zone. This does create all kinds of problems for us trying to support cruise ship divers as they are usually on Cruise Ship Time which is Eastern Time Zone, yet our clocks are "by law" Central Time Zone".

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers


Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

Thanks Dave, It was one of those senior moments. I know you're that far east, just was not thinking. You can be in any time zone your government says you are and it doesn't have to make sense either.

I guess I'm going to have to bring a tank in the house and and pop a reg in my mouth just to make it thru till next Sunday. I had one last local dive planned for yesterday before our trip to Coz, then my buddy calls me Saturday and says it Mothers Day I have to cancel, go figure I would forget that.

 

[DandyDon]

Equator? Cut him off - he's had enough.

Amarillo TX 100° 42' W - Central Time Zone

Oklahoma City OK 97° 36' W - Central Time Zone

Tulsa OK 95° 54' W - Central Time Zone

Atlanta GA 84° 26' W - Eastern Time Zone

Cozumel International Airport 86° 56' 0" W - Central Time Zone​

First time I went to Roatan, we were still on DST but they don't bother with such - and since they are legally on Central Standard time but Roatan is 86°35'W, it was a two hour change in sun-up and sunset for me.

At least Coz does DST now, but the weeks that they change when we don't do are wild. They started DST on April 4, 2010 vs our March 14 so for many of us they seemed an hour behind for 3 weeks. They end DST on October 31, 2010 while we wait until a week later for the Trick or Treaters. Got to watch those plane connections closely...!

 

[d_aviddiver]

from Weather Underground/Astronomy Section/Length of Visible Light/for today:

Anchorage, AK (extreme range) 19 hours 21 minutes
Santa Fe, NM (my primary home) 14 hours 52 minutes
Cozumel, MX (my other home) 13 hours 50 minutes

Let him drink. He's right.

 

[georoc01]

Equator? Cut him off - he's had enough.

Amarillo TX 100° 42' W - Central Time Zone

Oklahoma City OK 97° 36' W - Central Time Zone

Tulsa OK 95° 54' W - Central Time Zone

Atlanta GA 84° 26' W - Eastern Time Zone

Cozumel International Airport 86° 56' 0" W - Central Time Zone
​

First time I went to Roatan, we were still on DST but they don't bother with such - and since they are legally on Central Standard time but Roatan is 86°35'W, it was a two hour change in sun-up and sunset for me.

At least Coz does DST now, but the weeks that they change when we don't do are wild. They started DST on April 4, 2010 vs our March 14 so for many of us they seemed an hour behind for 3 weeks. They end DST on October 31, 2010 while we wait until a week later for the Trick or Treaters. Got to watch those plane connections closely...!

Yeah, Mexico is on our old schedule for DST. We changed ours a few years ago and Mexico didn't follow suit. It actually works out nice for me since I travel from the Mountain Time zone and are on the same time zone during the times that are out of sync.

 

[DandyDon]

My bad, had a few things wrong - reconsidered below...

Yeah, Mexico is on our old schedule for DST. We changed ours a few years ago and Mexico didn't follow suit. It actually works out nice for me since I travel from the Mountain Time zone and are on the same time zone during the times that are out of sync.

I had thot that Mexico didn't start DST changes until later, but it seems to have been since 1996, adhering to the same schedule as the U.S until 2007, when Mexico maintained the original schedule of starting the first Sunday in April and ending the last Sunday in October, while we changed it once again. I remember when it started on the last Sunday in April I think it was in the 70s.

 

[d_aviddiver]

There are two factors - time zone (and location within the time zone) & distance from the equator - that have a bearing on the timing of sunrise/sunset.

Latitude & longitude both have an effect.

Sharky pointed out the equator effect & you suggested he had been "overserved" ;-)

Edited to add:
Fargo, ND (46.9N, 96.8W) Civil Twilight = 9:26 CDT
Houston, TX (29.7N, 95.2W) Civil Twilight = 8:30 CDT
Almost an hour difference & largely due to the latitude.