![]() ![]() One cast no shadow at all and the other cast a significant shadow. A scholar named Eratosthenes noted the difference in the length of the shadows cast by poles placed in the ground in two cities, 800 kilometers apart, at noon on the day of the solstice. It helped the Ancient Greeks, 2,200 years ago, to understand the size of our planet with remarkable accuracy. The June summer solstice has another interesting claim to fame. The situation is reversed for those living south of the equator, where it's the shortest day of the year, during the cool months of winter. More hours of sunlight, in addition to the more direct angle of the Sun overhead, translate into warmer summertime temperatures for our planet's summer hemisphere. For the north, it's the longest day of the year, as the Sun traces its highest, longest path across the sky. June 21 is the Summer Solstice for the Northern Hemisphere, and Winter Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. The Triangle rises earlier each month as summer progresses. It's also quite an old star, compared to our Sun, at an age of 7-8 billion years.Īlso on June evenings, you'll notice the stars of the Summer Triangle – Vega, Deneb, and Altair – rising in the couple of hours after dark, and heralding the long, warm nights of Northern summer. It's much closer than Spica, at a distance of about 37 light years. It's the fourth brightest star in the sky. Orange giant Arcturus is the brightest star in Bootes, the herdsman. The pairing will make for great viewing through binoculars or a small telescope, with a sparkle of faint stars surrounding the rust-colored disk of Mars. It's a well-known open cluster of stars located around 600 light years away in the constellation Cancer, the crab. The Red Planet passes through the Beehive Cluster, also known as Praesepe or M44. On June 1st and 2nd, Mars will be in the Beehive. Planets buzz the Beehive, your bright evening stars, and how the Summer Solstice revealed the size of planet Earth. They rise earlier each month throughout the summer.
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