So this entire table is computed for an observer at 60° South latitude — Page 440, Lesson 407

I want to walk you through what this page is actually showing you, because at first glance it looks like a wall of numbers — but it's one of the most practical tables in the whole navigation syllabus. This is a sunrise and sunset table, and it's laid out for a specific latitude band, which is why you see the label "S60" at the bottom left. That "S" means South, and the 60 is the latitude — 60 degrees South. So this entire table is computed for an observer at 60° South latitude. Let me explain the structure, because once you see the pattern, the numbers stop being noise. The table is built around local mean time, and it gives you the times of sunrise and sunset for each day of the month. The way it's arranged, you read down the columns for the day of the month, and across the rows for the actual clock time. Look at the very top of the page — you'll see "17 01" and then a row of numbers: 10, 18, 27, 62, then 46 15 49 15 54 15 59 16 04 16 10. That top block is the sunrise column. The "17 01" is the date heading — the 17th of January. The numbers 10, 18, 27, 62 are the minutes past the hour, and then the sequence 46 15 49 15 54 15 59 16 04 16 10 is telling you the actual sunrise times: 16:46, 16:49, 16:54, 16:59, 17:04, 17:10 — you see, the times are creeping later as the days progress. Now here's the key thing I want you to notice: the times are in 24-hour clock format, and they're in local mean time, not UTC and not zone time. That's a critical distinction for navigation. When you're planning a flight and you need to know when it gets dark, you have to convert this local mean time to your working time reference. Let me walk you through the sunset side, because that's where the real pattern shows. Look at the block that starts "18 47 18 48 18 49 18 50 18 51 18 51 18 52 18 52 18 52 18 52 18 52 18 52 18 51 18 51 18 50 18 49 48". That's the sunset times for the middle of the month. Notice how they climb from 18:47 up to 18:52, hold at 18:52 for several days, then fall back down to 18:48. That's the solstice effect — around the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, the sunset time barely changes for days on end. The sun appears to "stand still" — that's literally what solstice means — and you can see it right here in the table as that flat plateau at 18:52. Now, the reason this matters for you as a pilot: this table is your tool for night flying planning. Regulations define night as the period from the end of evening civil twilight to the beginning of morning civil twilight. This table gives you the raw sunrise and sunset times, and from those you compute your twilight periods. If you're planning a departure or arrival, you need to know whether you'll be operating in daylight or darkness, because that determines your fuel requirements, your alternate airport requirements, and your instrument rating currency. Let me look at the later rows, because they show the progression through the month. The row starting "20 05 20 05 20 05 20 04 20 03 20 02 20 00 19 59 19 56 19 54 19 51 19 48 45 41 37 33 29" — that's the sunset times getting earlier as January progresses. You see them drop from 20:05 down to 19:29 by the end of the row. And the row after that, "20 56 20 55 20 54 20 53 20 51 20 48 45 41 37 33 28 23 20 18 20 12 20 07 20 01 19 55" — those are even earlier sunsets, dropping from 20:56 down to 19:55. Here's the thing I want you to internalize: the rate of change. In the Southern Hemisphere summer, the days are getting shorter, and you can see the sunset times falling by several minutes each day. That's not a linear drop — it accelerates as you get closer to the equinox. Look at the bottom rows: "22 18 22 16 22 12 22 07 22 01 21 55 21 49 21 42 34 26 19 21 10 21 02 20 54 45 36 28" — those are the latest sunsets of the month, around 22:18, and they're falling fast, about 4 to 6 minutes per day. Now, the practical skill here is interpolation. The table gives you values for each day, but you might need a time for a specific minute of a specific day, or you might need to adjust for a latitude that isn't exactly 60° South. The table gives you the framework, and you interpolate between the printed values. That's a core navigation skill — you never guess, you always interpolate from the tabulated data. Let me also point out the formatting convention you'll see throughout this table. The times are written as four digits — hour and minute — like 16 46, 17 01, 18 52. When you see a number like "62" at the top, that's not a time — that's a column label or a page reference, not a clock time. And when you see a single number like "48" or "45" at the end of a row, that's the minutes value continuing from the previous hour — so "18 49 48" means 18:49, then 18:48. One more thing about the layout: the table is split into sunrise on the top portion and sunset on the bottom portion, and the rows are organized by day of the month. The leftmost column of each block gives you the day number, and the numbers to the right are the times for that day. When you see a row like "17 55 17 56 17 58 18 00 18 02 18 04 18 06 18 08 18 10 18 11 18 13 18 15 18 16 18 18 18 19 18 21 18 22" — that's a full sequence of sunset times across consecutive days, and you can watch them climb or fall. So when you're using this in the real world, here's your workflow: you identify your latitude, you find the month, you locate the day, and you read the sunrise and sunset times in local mean time. Then you convert to your operating time reference, you compute your twilight periods, and you make your go/no-go decision on whether you'll be in daylight for your flight. That's the whole point of this table — it's not abstract data, it's your operational planning tool for every flight you'll ever fly at high southern latitudes.