Today Is Astronomical

Sunrise at the summer solstice, Stonehenge 2005 (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Summer solstice sunrise at Stonehenge, 2005 (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

June 20, 2016:

Today is astronomical.  It’s been 68 years since we’ve seen one like it.

Full moon at the sea (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Full moon over the sea (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

The last time the summer solstice occurred on the same day as the full moon was in 1948.

By the time you read this the moon will have done its job, having reached maximum fullness at 7:05am in Pittsburgh.  It had already set by then (6:13am) so we didn’t see it.

The summer solstice is yet to come — 11.5 hours after the moon’s event — at 6:34pm.

The moment when the sun stands still is such a big deal that they’re celebrating it with a four-day solstice festival at Stonehenge, pictured above.  But they won’t be able to see the sun during its special moment.  It’ll be almost midnight at Stonehenge, 11:34 pm.

Read more about this astronomical event at the Old Farmer’s Almanac.

 

(photo from Wikimedia Commons. Click on the image to see the original)

2 thoughts on “Today Is Astronomical

  1. hello

    I went outside to observe the moon at the time you wrote about. Did you see anything unusual? Maybe I was hallucinated; yet I saw incredible pulsating changing colors..

    Happy Solstice.

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