First, the table is organized by latitude, running down the left-hand side — Page 444, Lesson 416

I want to walk you through a very specific piece of navigational data — the sunset table. This is the kind of table you'll find in the almanac pages of your navigation equipment or charts, and it's used to determine when the sun sets at a given latitude on a given date. Let's look at what this table actually contains and how you read it. First, the table is organized by latitude, running down the left-hand side. You'll see latitudes from N 72 degrees down through N 50 degrees, and also some lower latitudes like 58, 56, 54, and 52 degrees. The "N" stands for North — so these are all northern latitudes. The table gives sunset times for each of these latitudes. Across the top, the table is divided into months — April and May — and then further subdivided into days: the 2nd, 5th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, 20th, 23rd, 26th, and 29th of each month. So the columns represent specific dates, and the rows represent specific latitudes. Now, the key thing here is the unit of time. The times are given in hours and minutes — you'll see entries like "19 17" which means 19 hours and 17 minutes, or 19:17. That's the time of sunset in UTC — Universal Time Coordinated. So if you're at latitude N 72 degrees on April 2nd, the sun sets at 19:17 UTC. Let me walk you through a specific example so you can see how the table works. Look at latitude N 72 degrees. On April 2nd, the sunset time is 19 hours 17 minutes. On April 5th, it's 19 hours 32 minutes. On April 8th, 19 hours 46 minutes. And you can see the times getting progressively later as the month advances — 20:01 on April 11th, 20:17 on April 14th, 20:33 on April 17th, 20:50 on April 20th, 21:08 on April 23rd, 21:27 on April 26th, 21:49 on April 29th, and then into May — 22:13 on May 2nd, 22:44 on May 5th, and 23:52 on May 8th. Now, you'll notice some entries have a "G" next to them — for example, at N 72 degrees on May 8th, you see "23 52" followed by a "G". That "G" stands for "Gale" — no, actually, let me be precise here. In this context, the "G" indicates that the sun does not set — it's the notation for continuous daylight. At very high latitudes during certain times of year, the sun never goes below the horizon, so there's no sunset. The "G" marks those dates where the sun remains above the horizon for the entire 24-hour period. Let me show you how this plays out at different latitudes. At N 70 degrees, on April 2nd the sunset is at 19:09, and you can see the times progressing — 19:22 on April 5th, 19:35 on April 8th, 19:48 on April 11th, 20:01 on April 14th, and so on. By May 8th, you get a "G" — continuous daylight. At N 68 degrees, the pattern continues — 19:03 on April 2nd, 19:14 on April 5th, 19:25 on April 8th, 19:36 on April 11th, 19:48 on April 14th, 20:00 on April 17th, 20:12 on April 20th, 20:24 on April 23rd, 20:36 on April 26th, 20:49 on April 29th, 21:03 on May 2nd, 21:16 on May 5th, 21:31 on May 8th, 21:46 on May 11th, 22:02 on May 14th, and 22:20 on May 17th. At N 66 degrees, you see 18:57 on April 2nd, 19:07 on April 5th, 19:17 on April 8th, 19:27 on April 11th, 19:38 on April 14th, 19:48 on April 17th, 19:58 on April 20th, 20:09 on April 23rd, 20:19 on April 26th, 20:30 on April 29th, 20:34 on May 2nd, 20:53 on May 5th, 21:04 on May 8th, 21:16 on May 11th, 21:28 on May 14th, and 21:40 on May 17th. Now, here's the important pattern to notice. As you go to lower latitudes — from N 72 down to N 50 — the sunset times become earlier. That makes sense: at higher latitudes in spring, the days are longer, so the sun sets later. At N 50 degrees, on April 2nd, the sunset is at 18:33 — much earlier than the 19:17 at N 72 degrees on the same date. Also notice that at lower latitudes, the "G" notation doesn't appear — because at N 50, N 52, N 54, N 56, N 58, and N 60 degrees, the sun always sets during these months. The continuous daylight only happens at the higher latitudes — N 66, N 68, N 70, and N 72 degrees. Let me also point out the structure of the table more carefully. You'll see rows like "S 30", "S 52", "S 60" — those "S" entries appear to be a different section of the table, possibly for southern latitudes or a separate reference row. The main body of the table is the sunset times for northern latitudes. One more thing to note — the table header says "SUNSET" at the top, and the latitude column is labeled "Lat." with the degree symbol "°". The time columns are labeled "h" for hours and "m" for minutes. So when you read an entry like "19 17", the first number is hours, the second is minutes. So, to summarize how you'd actually use this in practice: you identify your latitude, you identify the date, and you read across and down to find the sunset time in UTC. If you see a "G", that means no sunset — continuous daylight. This is critical for flight planning, especially for night flying operations, because you need to know when daylight ends to plan for lighting requirements, crew rest, and operational limits. That's the sunset table. It's a straightforward lookup, but the key is understanding the latitude rows, the date columns, the hours-and-minutes format, and what the "G" notation means.