Fascinating Facts About the Summer Solstice

In 2024, June 20 marks the summer solstice, the first official day of astronomical summer.

Transcript

00:00So the solstice is the longest day of the year and what that means is we see the sun in the sky

00:05for the longest period of time. Our earth is spinning on its axis once every 24 hours but

00:11depending on our tilt we're going to be seeing it in the sky for longer or shorter periods of time.

00:17It's just going to be in the right direction for a longer amount of time for today.

00:22So during the solstice about 16 hours of sunlight can be expected at a much much shorter night.

00:28In terms of measuring when the solstice is we can observe the sunrise and sunset times

00:33and when they are the furthest apart that's how we know the solstice is happening.

00:37It's a great time for solar observation because the sun is in the sky for the longest amount of

00:42time but a little bit annoying for everything else as a lot of astronomy is done at night

00:47so the shortest night of the year is not particularly ideal. As we head towards the

00:51solstice days get longer. Once we pass it days will start getting shorter again.

00:56This is eventually heading to a point called the equinox which occurs in September when

01:01we'll have an equal number of daylight and nighttime hours within our 24 hour period.