If you're at the Tropic of Capricorn the Sun will be directly overhead today. But if you're here in Pittsburgh at approximately 40.5 degrees north latitude, you'll see the sun much farther down in the sky, and you'll only get about nine hours and fifteen minutes of sunlight — that is if it's not too cloudy, which it is.
The precise moment of the 2004 solstice was at 7:42 A.M. EST.
According to the Candlegrove site, the Earth leans slightly on its axis at 23 degrees and 27 minutes off the perpendicular to the plane of orbit. The variations in the angle in how the earth is pointed toward the sun, is, as you know, what causes the seasons. The winter solstice marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year.
Information Please provides the following:
The sun appears at its lowest point in the sky, and its noontime elevation appears to be the same for several days before and after the solstice. Hence the origin of the word solstice, which comes from Latin solstitium, from sol, "sun" and -stitium, "a stoppage." Following the winter solstice, the days begin to grow longer and the nights shorter.
Some man-made objects, including old ones like Maeshowe in the Orkney Islands and new ones like James Turrell's Roden Crater in Arizona, illustrate and celebrate this celestial event.
Posted by mastr at December 21, 2004 09:45 AM