Solstice...

[frozengoose]

Happy Solstice from Fairbanks at a balmy thirty below...

https://twitter.com/NWSFairbanks/status/1208538896599937024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Eembeddedtimeline%7Ctwterm%5Elist%3Anewsminer%3Afdnm_tweets&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsminer.com%2F

[wirespokes]

The camera was pointed south. Right?

Here's a question - what does Solstice mean, besides the shortest or longest day of the year? What's the derivation of the word mean?

You guys who've read the Natural Navigator will know right off. What a good book!

Thanks for that little video! Pretty cool. Reminds me of last year when I was in Antarctica and around mid March we saw our first sunset. The sun had been up constantly since arriving in January. The sun finally got low enough it went behind one of the mountains for an hour or so. It was a momentous thing. And, about then it was 30 below there also.

[frozengoose]

Yes, the camera's pointing south.

From Wikipedia:
A solstice is an event occurring when the Sun appears to reach its most northerly or southerly excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere.
So there ya go.

Antarctica be pretty cool too, one of the places I'd like to visit someday.
Thanks.

[Huzo]

This..


This shot was taken at midnight June 22 2015

[Zigzagguzzi]

Origin of the word is japanese for a honda model.

[larrys]

Days are now getting longer. Yay! Winter is to be endured. This winter's project, changing my Cub Cadet snowblower attachment from a belt drive to a gearbox/shaft drive. Gotta do something to keep the winter doldrums at bay. Come on, spring!
Larry

[Two Checks]

Solstice is a car Pontiac made.

[Moto]

Here's a question - what does Solstice mean, besides the shortest or longest day of the year? What's the derivation of the word mean?

It means "sun stopped," according to the dictionary. It's from scientific Latin it says. This got me all excited. I wondered whether the ancients had come up with the name because they were so observant of the sky that they could see when the sun stopped its northern or southern movement. You know, living closer to nature and all that.

But even though the ancient Greeks had their own version of the same term, it seems that this was a scientific concept to them too, and not one of common observation. In fact, it seems, no one can detect the solstice per se without relatively advanced astronomical equipment. This according to Wikipedia. The best bet with the kind of instruments the ancients had is to take measurements about 20 days apart and interpolate from those to calculate an estimate of the solstice, because the sun's daily motion is only a 60th of its diameter near the solstices.

The equinoxes are far easier to determine because the sun's movement is much faster at those times.

Now back to our regular programming.

Thanks for raising the question.

Moto

[JJ]

It's all over now...spring is just around the corner!!

[wirespokes]

Moto comes closest to figuring it out. Huzo is on the right track.

Yes, Solstice breaks down to SUN STOPPED. So the question is: Why STOPPED?

Here's the low down, and I got this from the book - the Natural Navigator. It's chocked full of cool info.

Because the earth's axis isn't perpendicular to its rotation around the sun, we have the seasons. That means that the sun rises and sets a little bit farther north or south every day, depending on whether you're heading towards summer or winter. At the Equinox (EQUAL NIGHT) day is the same length as night everywhere on the planet.

Ok - so the sun rises in a different place every day. It moves along the horizon, and changes position the most at the equinox. At the solstice, it barely moves at all - it's like its movement along the horizon has stopped, and that's what it means.

[LowRyter]

Origin of the word is japanese (?) for a honda   Pontiac model.

fizzed it

[LowRyter]

It means "sun stopped," according to the dictionary. It's from scientific Latin it says. This got me all excited. I wondered whether the ancients had come up with the name because they were so observant of the sky that they could see when the sun stopped its northern or southern movement. You know, living closer to nature and all that.

But even though the ancient Greeks had their own version of the same term, it seems that this was a scientific concept to them too, and not one of common observation. In fact, it seems, no one can detect the solstice per se without relatively advanced astronomical equipment. This according to Wikipedia. The best bet with the kind of instruments the ancients had is to take measurements about 20 days apart and interpolate from those to calculate an estimate of the solstice, because the sun's daily motion is only a 60th of its diameter near the solstices.

The equinoxes are far easier to determine because the sun's movement is much faster at those times.

Now back to our regular programming.

Thanks for raising the question.

Moto

In the history of mankind, long before media, radio, TV, 'net, etc., typical entertainment and curiosity revolved around campfires, story telling, cave drawings and looking at the stars.   

Some have speculated that astronomy was used as a mobilizing method by the elites in ancient civilizations whereby the elites knowing astronomical dates could control the masses, even claim that they were deities that controlled the movement of the stars.  I think I read somewhere than an Aztec Chief actually was called on it and claimed he could change astronomy and when he failed, he was killed in a rebellion.  Perhaps he believed his own rhetoric?

But with math, the Greeks could've gotten the round trip to the equinoxes and consider the same interval for solstices, plot the annual calendar in two halves and there ya go.  No need for any equipment and the answer was close enough for govt work.

[kirby1923]

The sun travels from the tropic of cancer (passing just north of HNL), to the tropic of Capricorn  (thru French Polynesia), the two solstices, where it just started north again.

:-)

[Two Checks]

Quote from: LowRyter on Today at 09:34:00 AM

fizzed it

See post #6...yer late to the party!

[Sasquatch Jim]

The camera was pointed south. Right?


Thanks for that little video! Pretty cool. Reminds me of last year when I was in Antarctica and around mid March we saw our first sunset. The sun had been up constantly since arriving in January. The sun finally got low enough it went behind one of the mountains for an hour or so. It was a momentous thing. And, about then it was 30 below there also.

Been there done that, twice.

[RaceyStoner27]

[Matteo]

Same south sunset here in Anchorage. Sun was directly aligned with my street at just a few degrees above the horizon making shadows a little over horizontal.
Happy Solstice. (Sun still)

[LowRyter]

Quote from: LowRyter on Today at 09:34:00 AM

fizzed it

See post #6...yer late to the party!

I never get invited to parties.

[redhawk47]

In the first video, where they marked Solar Noon is due south.
The ancient civilizations were very aware the solstices (sun stops), equinoxes, and moon stops. The people of Chaco Canyon aligned their structures to an equinox or a moon stop. The moon's orbit moves likes the sun's apparent orbit, but takes about 17 years to complete its cycle. That took some patient observers to figure out.

Dan