SUN & MOON SIMULATOR
Top-down view of the plane. The sun and moon are small, local lights circling above us — the sun's spotlight creates day and night as it travels, not a spinning ball. Press play and watch a full cycle.
HOW DAY & NIGHT WORK ON THE PLANE
The sun circles the North Pole roughly every 24 hours, spiraling between the inner and outer tropics through the seasons — that spiral is what gives us summer and winter. Its light acts like a spotlight: regions near the sun are in daylight, regions far from it fall into night, and the terminator (the day/night boundary) is simply where the light fades with distance. The moon circles on its own slightly different path and period, which is why moonrise shifts night to night. No 1,000-mph spin, no 67,000-mph orbit around the sun — just lights moving above a level earth.