WINTER SOLSTICE

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,
and part of the Seasons meme.

SUMMER SOLSTICE

The Summer Solstice marks the longest day of the year, bringing the most daylight hours between sunrise and sunset. In the Southern Hemisphere, this happens when our side of Earth is tilted closest to the sun. As a result, the sun's rays hit the Earth more directly, leading to extended daylight hours and the sun appearing higher in the sky.

At the same time, the Northern Hemisphere will experience the Winter Solstice, due to the North Pole being at its farthest tilt away from the sun.

This year in Melbourne, the Summer Solstice blessed us with 14 hours and 47 minutes of sunshine. Summer Solstice was on Saturday, 21st December.

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,

and also part of the Seasons meme.

SOLSTICE SUNSET

On the longest day of the year, on our Summer Solstice here in the Southern Hemisphere, light lingers in the sky well into the evening. This is the view from my window.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

WINTER SOLSTICE

A very cold day (and night!) today for the Winter Solstice. The sun was out now and then, but had a hard time trying to warm things up... I believe several weather records were broken today all over Victoria.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the My Corner of the World meme,
and also part of the Nature Notes meme.

SOLSTICE SUNRISE

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme.

WINTER SOLSTICE

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme.

WINTER SOLSTICE

Today's Winter Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, marks the shortest day of the year and the longest night. The opposite is true for the Northern Hemisphere, where the Summer Solstice marks the longest day and the shortest night. The southern seasons are explained in the diagram below.

In Melbourne the sun rose at 7:35 am and set at 5:08 pm today. Solstice sunset photo below with a mosaic of some of my "astronomical" art pieces (see more on Instagram @jammysevenk).

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme.

SOLSTICE SKY

We are just experiencing the Winter Solstice in Australia on June 21. The word solstice came into Middle English from Old French, from the Latin solstitium. This is a compound of sol- (sun) and -stitium (a stoppage), so the word means “the sun stands still”, reflecting the time when the Sun apparently stops moving north or south and then begins moving in the opposite direction.

In every year, there are two solstices. In the northern hemisphere, the June solstice happens when the Earth’s north pole is tilted its maximum amount towards the Sun. The December solstice happens when the north pole is most tilted away from the Sun. Thus, the June solstice is the day with the most sunshine, and the December solstice has the longest night. The opposite is true in southern hemisphere, with the Winter and Summer solstices in June and December respectively.

Appropriately, on this shortest day of the year, we've had a very wintry day with cold, rainy weather. However, in the afternoon the sun came out briefly as if to promise that from now on the day will start to grow longer.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,

and also part of the Friday Photo Journal meme.