Given our latitude, Dec 9 2015 was calculated to be the day of The Earliest Sunset. Too many clouds. Dec 10 2015 was hazy with some clouds. I climbed The Hill To The North "Balanced" rock. The 33º S of due west on the phone compass app wasn't pointing at the sunset.
Time: 4:12; The bottom of the setting sun (orange spot in top center) touched the top of the far Blandford Hill. True sunset, when the top of the orb sank below the horizon, was 4:18.
The degrees on the phone compass was reading 254º? And fluctuating. ?
magnetic declination
Our early Sun Watcher didn't have a compass or know about "magnetic declination." He had many boulders along the long ridge to choose from. One, however, The Rock, had a level view to the western hills, where he could lean back against one particular slanted rock in the middle of a particular stone pile and face the setting sun. It was awkward. Rudimentary, but it worked.
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