Why is everyone celebrating the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge on the wrong day?
Today is Tuesday 21st June 2011. According to Wikipedia, the summer solstice occured today at 17:16 UTC. That's basically 17:16 GMT which is 18:16 BST, the time currently used at Stonehenge.
Why do people go to Stonehenge to celebrate the summer solstice? Well, they go there to see the sun rise at its most northerly position of the year. And here's the thing: sunrise tomorrow morning at 04:43 BST (according to this website) is 10 hours 27 minutes after the astronomical time of the solstice, which is actually closer to the solstice than today's sunrise which also occured at 04:43 some 13 hours 33 minutes before the exact time of the solstice. That means that the sun will rise tomorrow slightly further north tomorrow than it did today! Then on Thursday it will start to recede.
So who decides which day to celebrate? I'm going to find out ...
Tuesday 21 June 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)