21 day old moon
57.2 percent lit
A fun article from "Slate."
June 20, 2016
By Phil Plait
On Monday at 22:34 UTC (6:34 pm Eastern U.S. time), (click here) the Sun will reach its highest declination in the sky, its farthest point north for the year. That is the moment of the June solstice.
This means that, in the Northern hemisphere, we have the longest day of the year, and the shortest night. If you live your life standing on your head in the Southern hemisphere, it means you have the shortest day, and the longest night.
I enjoy writing about the solstices and equinoctes* when they happen, so you can read all about how and why they occur in past articles. I’ll note that Monday is not the date of the earliest sunrise and latest sunset though; that has to do with the Earth’s orbit being slightly elliptical, so I’ll make a special point of linking to this article last year where I explain why that happens. I’ll also note that some people call this the first day of summer (or winter for those in the south), but I disagree; I tend to think of it as actually the midpoint. You can read about that to your brain’s delight as well....
A spectacular article from Michigan:
June 24, 2016
By Mark Torragrossa
We had a full moon on the summer solstice. It was called the strawberry moon....
