Categories
Miscellany

Solstice

7:22 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
solsticeweb.jpg

Spring is just around the corner.

From the Naval Observatory:

The Sun reaches his southernmost excursion among the stars on the 21st at 7:22 pm EST. At this moment the center of Old Sol’s disc stands directly above the Tropic of Capricorn about 650 miles (1000 kilometers) south of Pago-Pago in the South Pacific Ocean. The Sun will seem to hover at this latitude for a time, then gradually begin its inexorable northward trek toward the summer solstice half a year from now. Even though we experienced the year’s earliest sunset on the night of the 7th, the latest sunrise won’t occur until the first week of January. If we measure the length of time between sunrise and sunset on the 21st, we would indeed find it to be the year’s shortest day, with the Sun above the horizon for a mere 9 hours 26 minutes here in Washington. Alert skywatchers may have already noticed that sunset is starting to occur later than it did back on the 7th. On the solstice itself the Sun will set four minutes later than it did two weeks ago.

More at the Royal Observatory, Greennwich