https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8466351/summer-solstice-australia-welcomes-longest-day-of-the-year/

Summer Solstice 2023:
All you need to know about longest day of the year


JC
By Jessica Coates
Updated December 21 2023 - 9:33am, first published 9:00am


The sun will reach its highest point in the Australian sky as the country welcomes the summer solstice on December 22.

An annual astronomic event, traditionally a time of celebration and summer festivals, it is used to track changes in seasons each year.

Seasons and lengths of days and nights are decided according to Earth's tilt relative to the sun, which changes through the year.

Days and nights across Australia will start getting shorter after the summer solstice.

According to Weatherzone, this year's summer solstice
will happen on Friday, December 22 at 4.50pm when
the sun will be at its highest point in the sky.


Australia will also experience it's shortest night of the year, marking the south pole's furthest tilt away from the sun.

The longest day of the year will be slightly different in each state and territory.

In the NT, the sun will rise at 6.19am and set at 7.11pm.

In NSW, the sun will rise at 5.41am and set at 8.06pm and in Victoria it will rise at 5.55am and sunset will occur at 8.50pm.

Melbourne
5:55 am
Friday 22 December 2023 (AEDT)
Sunrise in Melbourne VIC

8:42 pm
Friday 22 December 2023 (AEDT)
Sunset in Melbourne VIC



In parts of Queensland, which doesn't observe daylight saving, the sun will rise before 5am.

In the ACT, the sun will rise at 5.15am and sunset will occur at 8.47pm.

The longest day of the year can fall anytime from December 21-23.

Nice long sunny days here in Melbourne so I am enjoying 24 hrs of self-sufficient electricity generation.   8-)


https://i.imgur.com/cFIqz0o.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/3rqRtCA.jpg

Good on you Captain Nemo -

maybe I should get some solar cells for my roof?

Yep, they are good fun.

I hope this day doesn't drag out. :P

Good morning Bobby.

Thanks for the article.

However, Jessica should have gotten someone who knows something about astronomy to proof read her article before it was 'published'.


Quote:

this year's summer solstice will happen on Friday, December 22 at 4.50pm when the sun will be at its highest point in the sky.

Uh... no.. the sun will be at it's highest point in the sky at around about midday local time wherever you are... same as it is on every other day of the year. Except for at the north and south poles, of course.

What she should have said was the sun will be at it's highest point in the sky at (approximately) midday today for the southern hemisphere. If one really wanted to be 'picky' this is actually only true for the Tropic of Capricorn (23.4 degrees South) where the sun will be directly overhead at (approximately) midday and everywhere south of it.

As you head north between the Tropic of Capricorn and the equator the sun will have already been overhead at (approximately) midday sometime between September 21/22 (equinox) and today depending on how far south of the equator you are. And the sun will be directly overhead sometime between now and March 21/22 (equinox)... again, depending on your latitude.


Quote:

According to Weatherzone, this year's summer solstice will happen on Friday, December 22 at 4.50pm when the sun will be at its highest point in the sky.

Well.. Weatherzone is incorrect, as Amy said in the comment below the article the Solstice is at 2:27pm Eastern Time (which is 11:27am Perth time and I've confirmed it with the Stellarium astronomy program).


Quote:

Amy Nicholson 1 hr ago Last equinox was at 4:50 pm, the upcoming solstice is at 2:27 pm eastern time today

And lastly...


Quote:

Australia will also experience it's shortest night of the year, marking the south pole's furthest tilt away from the sun.

Uh... again... no Jessica. That happens at the southern hemisphere's winter solstice on June 21/22. See the attached images.

---

Thanks Carl,
I think the journalist re-wrote those words and got it wrong.


channel 9 says:

https://www.9news.com.au/national/summer-solstice-2023-will-be-australias-longest-day/bf12ec97-3a1a-40b4-9100-31f6904a5f30

The summer solstice, which marks the longest day of the year in the Southern Hemisphere in terms of daylight hours, will take place today.
The seasons and the length of our days and nights are determined by the Earth's tilt relative to the sun, which is constantly changing throughout the year.

This year's summer solstice will occur at 4:50pm AEST,
according to Weatherzone.

This will be the moment the Earth's south pole
reaches its furthest tilt away from the sun.
The December solstice causes the longest day and shortest night of the year in Australia and the rest of the Southern Hemisphere.
It usually occurs on December 22 every year, but can occur between December 21 and 23.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/12/21/christmas-traditions-pagan-roots/71943013007/


Perhaps Xmas day is really the day of
the Winter solstice in the Northern hemisphere?


Many Christmastime traditions have their origins in wintertime traditions more broadly, specifically winter solstice celebrations ancient Romans and other pre-Christian people celebrated to mark the changing of the seasons.

Throughout history, the winter solstice − the shortest day and longest night of the year − has been commemorated with light-filled festivities, to remind us that the dreary, cold depths of winter don't last forever, said Brent Landau, a religion professor at the University of Texas at Austin who teaches a class called History of Christmas.

"The human impulse to mark or commemorate the passing of the seasons in general and the winter solstice in particular is extremely ancient," Landau told USA TODAY.


December 25th

The timing of Christmas likely evolved from when pre-Christian Europeans celebrated the winter solstice in late December, said Landau.

These days, Christmas roughly coincides with the winter solstice on Dec. 21.

In ancient Rome, when people used a different version of the calendar, called the Julian calendar, the winter solstice fell on Dec. 25 - so the two holidays were on the same day at one point in history.

"The connection between the birth of Jesus and the winter solstice in the ancient world was even more in your face and obvious," Landau said. "Like, it's the same day."

Ancient Romans also celebrated their sun god, Sol Invictus, on Dec. 25, according to Landau, because the winter solstice marked the real sun's annual rebirth from fading during fall and winter to being in the sky longer during spring and summer.

Today is 3 seconds shorter.

https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/australia/melbourne?month=12

Melbourne
22/12/2023
sunrise 5:54am  Sunset 8:42pm

23/12/2023
sunrise 5:55 am  Sunset 8:42 pm


That's 1 minute shorter today.

Actually, you will notice that even though the 'longest' day (maximum daylight time) of the year was yesterday for the southern hemisphere the sunsets will continue to get later for about a month but at the same time the sunrises will start to get later as the daylight hours gradually get shorter.

This is explained here:

Why doesn't the latest sunset fall on the longest day of the year?


Quote:

In essence, it all comes down to how we measure time. As a rule the sun isn't a very reliable time keeper, Watson points out, mainly because the Earth orbits the sun in an elliptical pattern, running faster when it is closest to the sun in January and slower when it is furthest away from the sun in July. "It's slightly faster in [the Southern Hemisphere] summer than in our winter," says Watson. This quirk means that the length of a solar day — the time between two solar noons (when the sun is at the highest point in the sky) — is not always the 24 hours we measure on a clock. It's about 20 seconds longer in January and around 40 seconds shorter in July. But while the solar day is getting longer during December and into January, the clock still only registers 24 hours. The difference between actual solar time and clock time changes by about 30 seconds every day, Watson explains. And that extra time effectively delays the following sunrise according to our clocks. At the same time, the Earth's axial tilt means we are getting a few seconds more daylight every day in the Southern Hemisphere in the lead up to summer solstice, but this has a small effect on the sunset and sunrise times compared with the much larger difference between solar time and clock time. The earliest sunrise occurs before the Earth hits its speedy orbit during December. And while the number of actual daylight hours starts getting shorter after the solstice, sunset is still delayed by the solar/clock time difference until the Earth's solar orbit starts slowing down again in January. It is this effect that leads to the staggering of the earliest sunrise, the solstice and the latest sunset.

This article was written in 2010 and the times they use as an example are for Sydney and, as they say, the effect gets more noticeable the further away you get from the equator.

Perth is about the same as Sydney since they are both at almost the same latitude, only about a degree or two difference.

---

Bobby. wrote on Dec 23^rd, 2023 at 9:18pm:

https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/australia/melbourne?month=12 Melbourne 22/12/2023 sunrise 5:54am  Sunset 8:42pm 23/12/2023 sunrise 5:55 am  Sunset 8:42 pm That's 1 minute shorter today.

Wouldn't it have been great if Sunrise was 4:55am and Sunset at 7:42pm without the daylight saving crap?

Basically DLS of Rise at 6am Set at nearly 9pm ::)
So much for favouring Early Risers for a nice 5am start.
While everyone's body clock is being screwed over for late Retail crap.  :P

The longest day...

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KdNUlLzTvA

Jasin wrote on Dec 24^th, 2023 at 12:08am:

Bobby. wrote on Dec 23rd, 2023 at 9:18pm: https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/australia/melbourne?month=12 Melbourne 22/12/2023 sunrise 5:54am  Sunset 8:42pm 23/12/2023 sunrise 5:55 am  Sunset 8:42 pm That's 1 minute shorter today. Wouldn't it have been great if Sunrise was 4:55am and Sunset at 7:42pm without the daylight saving crap? Basically DLS of Rise at 6am Set at nearly 9pm ::) So much for favouring Early Risers for a nice 5am start. While everyone's body clock is being screwed over for late Retail crap.  :P

4:55 am -  then an hour of sunlight would be wasted by most people as they would be asleep in bed.

Example - with Daylight Saving someone can go to work in the morning
and still have time to mow their lawns after work.

Still plenty of time because of the longer days. To mow a lawn in the arvo. Don't need to do so much in Winter, when the grasses don't grow as much, with the shorter days - anyway.

People don't sleep in, when it comes to the body clock of nature but some spastic got a step ladder and went around like Santa Claus and changed everyone's clocks in a 'jilted' fashion.

Jasin wrote on Dec 24^th, 2023 at 6:58am:

Still plenty of time because of the longer days. To mow a lawn in the arvo. Don't need to do so much in Winter, when the grasses don't grow as much, with the shorter days - anyway. People don't sleep in, when it comes to the body clock of nature but some spastic got a step ladder and went around like Santa Claus and changed everyone's clocks in a 'jilted' fashion.

Well - that is the idea behind daylight saving -
making the most of the sunlight.

Only in bias to the afternoon where people don't want to fall asleep until its dark around 9pm and can sleep in from the morning.

Basically screw the early morning workers and people who Rise with the Morning Sun.

...DLS, something some American in the 'far West' back there - made up for Australia to make it sleeping in an extra hour from rising, so that the Yanks can visit the Malls longer in the evening.  ::)

....Mental Health: When the Mind becomes disjointed from the Body.