ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the techniques that allow the designer to visualize the sun's path across the sky dome throughout the year as well as graphically estimate or precisely calculate the sun's position at any time. It describes the few basic pieces of information needed to mentally construct the solar path band for any location on Earth on the solar path band. The geocentric view of the solar system was dismantled by Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei , and Johannes Kepler in the early Renaissance with the more elegant heliocentric model, which agreed much better with actual observations of planetary and stellar movement. The sky dome is a theoretical construct, the understanding of which is key to visualizing the sun's relationship to any point on Earth. When the sun's apparent movement is inscribed on the sky dome, it takes the characteristic form known as the solar path band. Cylindrical projections are a common type of vertical sun-path diagram.
