12/21/2021 – Ephemeris – Winter starts today as the Sun starts coming back up north

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, December 21st. Today the Sun will be up for 8 hours and 48 minutes, setting at 5:05, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:17. The Moon, 3 days past full, will rise at 7:11 this evening.

The thermometer and snowfall tell us that winter ought to be here. Well, it will be at 10:59 this morning. At that point, the Sun will be directly over the Tropic of Capricorn at 23 ½ degrees south latitude. It’s an odd name because 2,000 years ago the Sun was in indeed entering Capricornus. Now it’s entering Sagittarius, right above the spout of the teapot asterism we know so well in summer. From then on the Sun will be climbing up the sky each noon until June 21st next year when summer will start. To which I say Go Sun Go! The Sun will almost make it up to 22 degrees above the southern horizon at local noon, which is 12:40 pm, in Interlochen and be out for only 8 hours and 48 minutes. If it stayed that low all year, we’d be in a deep freeze, possibly colder than Antarctica.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT – 5 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Comparing the sun’s path at the summer and winter solstices in Traverse City, MI, located near 45 degrees north latitude. This is a stereographic representation of the whole sky, which distorts the sky and magnifies the size of the sun’s path near the horizon.

Earth’s position at the solstices and equinoxes. This is a not to scale oblique look at the Earth’s orbit, which is nearly circular. The Earth is actually farthest from the Sun on July 4th, and closest on January 3, next year. Click on the image to enlarge. Credit: ESO (European Southern Observatory), which explains the captions in German and English.

Of course, the winter solstice for us is the summer solstice for folks in the Southern Hemisphere. Solstice is “Sun stand still”. The Sun has been  moving southward in the sky at noon since June, and today has stopped, and will now start heading northward again.