The solstice, the “Sun-standing” at its highest or lowest in our sky, comes relentlessly around every year, so what can be new about it? Here’s the sky scene of the evening closest to the hour (Dec. 21, 16 Universal Time) of this year’s solstice.
But hey, it looks completely different this time!
That’s because it’s not the winter solstice: it’s the summer solstice; Australia and New Zealand are passing into night on this evening of the solstice, which, for them, is when Earth is most tilted toward, not away from, the Sun.
Back in the northern hemisphere, which usually has a grip on our sense of orientation, the celestial equator and all the other features in the sky tilt in the opposite direction.
I’m planning soon to say some more about orientation.
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ILLUSTRATIONS in these posts are made with precision but have to be inserted in another format. You may be able to enlarge them on your monitor. One way: right-click, and choose “View image”, then enlarge. Or choose “Copy image”, then put it on your desktop, then open it. On an iPad or phone, use the finger gesture that enlarges (spreading with two fingers, or tapping and dragging with three fingers). Other methods have been suggested, such as dragging the image to the desktop and opening it in other ways.
This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun.
Despite the blip with dates, your gesture to the southern hemisphere is appreciated. The world as a whole is usually a very borealocentric place.
You’ve posted 2022 diagrams
Yes, it’s been a tiring day. For a moment I thought you meant this waas the number of diagrams I;ve had to work up since starting this blog, which seems like 20,022/
I never thought about solstices,or equinoxes, much when I lived in the southern hemisphere although as lived in Pietermaritzburg at 29 degrees south I can’t say that I noticed much difference in the daylight hours.Mind the winter could get quite cold there with frost and down to about 0c at night.Perhap if we’d lived in Hobart, Port Stanley or Invercargill I’d have thought about solstices and equinoxes more when I was a southern hemispherian?
Cool word Never thought of myself as a North Hemispherian.