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How the Sun’s location affects the seasons:
•The angle of the sun’s rays:
•In the summer it passes closer to overhead and therefore shines more directly
on the summer hemisphere
•The time the Sun is up
•In the summer it spends more than 12 hours above the horizon.
•The seasons are NOT due to the slightly elliptical shape of the Earth’s orbit and the fact that it is slightly closer to the Sun during part of the year.
•Test of that hypothesis:  If the distance were the cause, then when it was summer in the northern hemisphere, what season would it be in the southern hemisphere?
SUN
(From our Text:  Horizons, by Seeds)