STORY:
Debating First US Sunrise

Lubec Maine disputes US Naval Observatory claim of first US sunrise of 2000

By Ron Pesha

Special to Everything2000

The tiny town of Lubec, Maine claims to be the first place in America to see the sun rise each day. But city officials got angry when the U.S. Naval Observatory declared recently that the summit of Cadillac Mountain, just outside Bar Harbor Maine, would be the first place in the country to see the dawn on Jan. 1.

Now Bar Harbor has proclaimed "official" status because the U.S. Naval Observatory computed sunrise atop Acadia National Park's Cadillac Mountain on January 1 2000 at 7:04, usurping Lubec's time by two minutes.

Lubec officials are still trying to figure out who's right. Cadillac Mountain is over 60 miles farther west than the Town of Lubec. Ah, but the earth tilts in relation to the sun, which rises farthest south about December 21st. The dawn sweeps across the earth at an angle, not on a neat north-south longitudinal line.

Upstate Maine columnist Tom Weber, writing about this state of affairs in the Bangor Daily News said he admired Lubec's upbeat attitude. "Lubec seemed to be a town that was secure about its place in the world, about where it stood in the bigger picture, which just happened to be right smack on the easternmost edge of the continental United States." A week later Weber reported other claims for first dawn, based on folklore and stoic Downeast pride, for seacoast sites such as Bucks Harbor and Bass Harbor.

The U.S. Naval Observatory recalculated for the Town of Lubec's 251-foot Porcupine Mountain and suggested that both it and 1531-foot Cadillac Mountain will receive the rays at 7:04. It was a neat tie, saving face and preserving pride at both sites.

Lubec's officials say the Naval folks computed for the center of the Town which is a few miles of Sail Rock the ultimate easternmost point at 44 deg 47 min 40 sec N, 66 deg 56 min 40 sec W...as computed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA's Dave Henry used a 180-foot point nearby on Quoddy Head as Lubec. Henry wrote,

• "Sail Rock (farther east most point) 7:05:49
• Look Out Tower (180 feet) Quoddy 7:04:21
• Cadillac Mountain (1530 feet) 7:04:46

This calculation puts Cadillac Mountain at number 2 by 25 seconds."

Will this pit NOAA against the Naval Observatory? As Lubec versus Bar Harbor? Well, it's all in high good humor. Furthermore, time is a human construct, as are time zones. Human-conceived time sweeps across the globe on a longitudinal line, and by definition the Millennium arrives at the Easternmost Point first.... at midnight.

Nevertheless Lubec selected sunrise to celebrate, for its early-to-bed-early-to-rise fishermen aren't awake for midnight balls at Times Square. They'd rather rise with First Light. So Lubec plans fireworks at dawn. If the sun's disc appears through the usual winter fog, well, maybe Cadillac Mountain's horizon will clear, too.

DATE: 9/24/99

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