Is it possible for a Halo array to have a 24-hour day/night cycle?

Question

The Halo series features ringed worlds called Halos that are roughly 10,000 kilometers in diameter. You play the game across a variety of locales on the inner surface of these ring worlds, but also across different times of day.
Is it geometrically possible for a Halo-like ring world to have a 24-hour day-to night cycle, where the sun that the Halo orbits is up for about 12 hours, then sets and remains unseen for another 12?

Redbud201 · Answer

Yes
And it's rather simple.
Have the ring's disk plane point almost at the sun but slightly off. (/) ^sun
The backslash is the halo seen from the perimeter.
Then the rotation could simply be once every 24 hours and you have half the time where the inside surface is pointed at the sun, and half when it's pointed away.
In another method, you could spin the ring end over end in addition to rotation about the hollow axis, but that probably wouldn't produce as even of a day/night cycle.

Anderas · Answer

Make the rings bigger and it works. Reference to the Culture Series Orbitals by Iain Banks. Wow those are huge!
Put shades that dim or get transparent in any color and time schedule you like.
Put the ring into a shaded area and apply light by mirror.
Close the ring to avoid atmosphere loss and turn the lights off and on. My daughter loves to do this, but she does it faster than in a 24 hours rhythm.

rek · Answer

Yes. A rotating angled mirror can be used to reflect sunlight into the ring to match the day/night schedule of your choice. This is common for Bishop Ring habitats, which a Halo qualifies as:

Is it possible for a Halo array to have a 24-hour day/night cycle?

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