This will occur at exactly 10:57 am Eastern Wednesday. Technically speaking, the summer solstice occurs when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer, or 23.5 degrees north latitude. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and his website.The summer solstice is upon us: Wednesday, June 21, is the longest day of 2023, and the start of the summer season, for anyone living north of the equator. Deneb, the most brilliant star in the constellation Cygnus, the swan, is a blue-white giant estimated to be 1,400 light-years away and 110 times as wide as our sun.Īndrew Fazekas, the Night Sky Guy, is the author of Star Trek: The Official Guide to Our Universe. For observers in mid-northern latitudes like New York and London, look for the bright star Deneb to appear straight overhead, or at the sky’s zenith.
At the same time that we mark the autumn equinox, there will be a seasonal change in the stars that dominate the overhead evening skies. Because the moon shines so brightly, try using binoculars to reveal some of the fainter stellar members in both clusters.ĭeneb at Zenith. The Pleiades, which will be above the moon, is a much younger cluster that lies 440 light-years from Earth. The V-shaped Hyades, which will be located to the left of the moon, sits 150 light-years from Earth, making it one of the closest such star groupings. Late night on September 20, the waning gibbous moon will be rising in the low eastern horizon, forming a pretty triangular formation with the Hyades and Pleiades star clusters. During a Saturn equinox, which rolls around every 15 Earth years, the sun shines edge-on to the planet’s famous rings, casting them in low shadows that can reveal their three-dimensional structure. This translates to mind-numbing winters that last a whopping 42 years.įor some planets, seasonal variations can even affect our views of these celestial objects. Its axis is tipped nearly 90 degrees, meaning it essentially spins on its side during its 84-year orbit around the sun. However, the nightmare planet for anyone with seasonal affective disorder would have to be Uranus. Mars has a very similar tilt to Earth’s and so experiences the same kinds of seasons, but its distance from the sun means that a Martian winter lasts a frigid 154 days. Other planets also have seasons and equinoxes, although on much more extreme scales. Exactly at sunset on the spring and autumn equinoxes, sunlight hits the building’s steep staircase at just the right angle to create an eerie snake-like shape that appears to slither along its length. One notable example is an ancient Maya step pyramid known as El Castillo at Chichén Itzá in Mexico. Eventually, the sun will reach its lowest point in the midday sky, marking the December solstice.Ĭultures around the world have historically celebrated the dates that represent the changing of the seasons. Unauthorized use is prohibited.Īs we head toward December, the Northern Hemisphere will tilt farther away from the sun and receive its rays at a steeper angle, creating longer shadows and cooler conditions indicative of winter.
It’s also only on the spring and autumn equinoxes that the sun rises due east and sets due west.
On these days, both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres experience roughly equal amounts of sunshine. That means as Earth travels along its 365-day orbit, different hemispheres tilt closer to or farther from our sun’s warming rays.Īn equinox is a geometrical alignment between the sun and Earth in which the sun appears positioned right above our planet’s equator. The planet spins on an axis that is tilted 23.5 degrees with respect to its orbital plane. This tidy split in our 24-hour day is linked to the reason Earth has seasons in the first place. The word “equinox” comes from Latin and means “equal night,” referring to the roughly 12-hour day and night that occurs only on the two equinox days of the year. UTC) on September 22, officially marking the beginning of fall in the Northern Hemisphere and the start of spring in the Southern Hemisphere. ( Learn more about equinoxes.)Īs the midday sun begins to sink lower and nights get noticeably longer, it can only mean the reign of summer is coming to an end for the northern half of the world.
As the 2017 Equinox approaches, look back at the sky event surrounding the 2016 event.
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