Except that in Boston, the Sun is never due East, we are too far North for that. So the Sun would strike the building from the South East, casting a shadow to the North West, right?
Henry -- you gotta use a globe not a flat Google Map
The easiest way to understand things is that when you stand on a spot on the earth the same stars directly over your head will be back in the same place 24 hour later. So if the Sun was to behave like the rest of the Universe we would always have 24 hour days with the Sun above the horizon for 12 hours-- this is true only on the Equator.
For every place north of the Equator we spend half the year with the sun above the horizon for more than 12 hours and half the year with the sun above the horizon for less than 12 hours. The crossing points are the Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes -- First day of Spring and First Day of Autumn -- on that day our day behaves like we were on the Equator
Standing On the North Pole -- the Sun executes essentially a full circle on the Summer Solstice -- never dipping below the horizon
Here on the Solstice for some point North of the Equator such as Boston [ 42 degrees North] - in order to get 15+ hours of daylight you need to follow a curve beginning quite far to the North of East
Today at 8:00 AM the sun was about 5 deg above the horizon at an azimuth angle of 106.95 deg measured from North toward East [or 17 degrees South of East]
A month from now @ 8:00 AM the sun will be 15 degrees high at an azimuth angle of 99.99 deg
April 27 @ 8:00 27 deg up and 92 deg from North -- essentially Due East
April 27 @ 6:00 AM 2 degrees above the horizon but 72.71 degrees from North
May 27 @ 6:00 AM 7 degrees above the horizon but 67.38 degrees from North
June 21 @ 5:30 AM 2.97 degrees above the horizon but 60.31 degrees from North -- this by anyone's definition is about 30 degrees North of East
of course in that last example the Shadow would miss the Common heading too far South
Go to:
to do your own experimenting
