How’d you go getting out of bed today?
If you struggled, you’re not alone, the sun also stayed in late – Sunrise across the coast coming just before 7am, with Sunset due right before 5pm (6.58am and 4.54pm to be precise, according to Geoscience Australia).
Despite common perception, it’s not the day with the latest sunrise or earliest sunset…the latest sunrise happens a few days before the June Solstice, and the earliest sunset takes place a few days afterwards.
But it does give the day the least amount of daylight hours. On June 21 this year, Coasties can expect around 9 hours, 53 minutes and 53 seconds of sunshine.
From 22 June 2017, the days start getting longer – but not quickly, we get an extra 2 seconds of sunlight on Thursday this week.
The sun won’t be creeping above the horizon until after 6.30am for the next month or so.
The Solstice – The Facts:
The word itself means “stationary sun”, because it really does seem to stand still.
It’s an astronomical event that happens twice a year – in summer and winter – when the sun reaches its highest position in the sky as seen from the North or South Poles.
Because the path of the Earth around the Sun is an ‘ellipse’, not a true circle, and because the Earth is off-centre on its axis, this can create up to several minutes difference between “solar time” and “mean time”.
Sunrise is defined as the instant in the morning under ideal meteorological conditions, with standard refraction of the Sun’s rays, when the upper edge of the sun’s disk is coincident with an ideal horizon.
Sunset is defined as the instant in the evening under ideal meteorological conditions, with standard refraction of the Sun’s rays, when the upper edge of the sun’s disk is coincident with an ideal horizon.
Geoscience Australia also tracks Civil Twilight, Nautical Twilight, Astronomical Twilight – none of which have anything to do with sparkly vampires.
There’s also Moonrise and Moonset, and is the Sun Transit Time.
Depending on the season, it’s either the shortest or longest day on the calendar, according to the amount of time between sunrise and sunset.
The Summer Solstice occurs around December 21 or 22, with the Winter Solstice smack bang in the middle of the coldest time of year – around June 20-22.
It is recognised at the same time all over the world – the official time of the June Solstice in Gosford, NSW, Australia is on Wednesday, 21 June 2017 at 2:24 pm AEST.
From today, the sun will start to set later and it won’t be long until it is back to being an early riser.
Winter Solstice is also known as Hibernal Solstice.
The June Solstice is celebrated in many cultures – people around the world honour the day with feasts, picnics, dance, and music.
One of Australia’s largest Winter festivals is Saturday June 24 at Katoomba in the NSW Blue Mountains. A free, family event held every year around the June Solstice includes music, art, singing, dancing, craft and food stalls and the highlight of the Winter Magic Festival 2017- the Grand Parade.
‘Trollstice’ was not such a happy time for a bunch of little critters (including Justin Timberlake and Gwen Stefani) but they still managed to celebrate.
So make hay while any sun shines and remember, it means it’s just:
- 72 days until springtime
- 163 days til summer
- and only 187 shopping days ’til Christmas!
We’ve now got the Summer Solstice to look forward to – on December 22 when the sun will rise at 4.42am and set by 7.04pm.
