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—The word solstice's Latin roots mean "sun stands still," an apt description of how the astronomical event appears from Earth. Since ancient times people have followed the movement of the sun as it rises, crosses the sky, and sets along a path that changes incrementally throughout the year. For a few days surrounding the solstice, however, our star seems to rise and set at the same locations. It also hovers at the same noontime spot, pausing before its trajectory begins its incremental shift until year's end—the December solstice.
—The "summer solstice" should be called the "June solstice," because it is actually the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. Despite the reversed seasons, the event has long been observed south of the Equator as well.
—The solstice occurs at the same moment all over the planet. But because earth is divided into some two dozen time zones, people experience it at different times of day. This year's event occurs on June 20 at 11:59 p.m. (23:59) Universal Time Coordinated (Greenwich, England). —The solstice has not occurred before June 21 since 1896. This year's early arrival—albeit only by a minute—is due to a complex quirk of the leap-year calendar.
The solstice happens at the same instant for all of us, everywhere on Earth. But our clocks say different times. This solstice takes place on Sunday, June 21, 2009 at 5:46 Universal Time. To find the time of the solstice in your location, you have to translate to your time zone. Here’s an example of how to do that. In the central United States, for those of us using Central Daylight Time, we subtract 5 hours from Universal Time. That how we get 0:46 (12:46 a.m.) Central Daylight Time as the time of the 2009 June solstice. Want to know the time in your location? Check out EarthSky’s article How do I translate Universal Time into my time?. And just remember: you’re translating from 5:46 Universal Time, Sunday, June 21.
Originally posted by fatdad
my wedding anniversary is on sunday the 21 of june..married 18 yrs and with my wife 25 yrs..on tuesday she was diagnosed with breast cancer..i hope this summer solstice brings her health and the strength to beat it.... im so sad i can hardly think..