Solstice Brings Official Start to Summer

None by Eric Ray

(KCPW News) While the recent temperature increase may have had some assuming that summer had finally arrived, that wasn't the case, until today that is.

"This is going to be the June solstice. Actually it's the official start of summer here in the northern hemisphere," says Patrick Wiggins, NASA's Solar System Ambassador to Utah. "But I feel bad for the poor people in the southern hemisphere where it's the start of winter. Unless of course you're a skier in which case you might be headed for the southern hemisphere so you can keep skiing."

Wiggins says the word solstice comes from a combination of Latin words meaning "sun stands still." The summer solstice also marks the longest day of the year from sunrise to sunset. Wiggins says this is also the time of year when the June moon illusion starts playing tricks on people's minds.

"When the moon gets close to the horizon, which of course this time of year it stays kind of low in the sky so it is close to the horizon, it's an optical illusion that fools your brain into thinking the moon appears bigger than it really does," says Wiggins. "So it's romantic sometimes, you get this nice pretty moon close to the horizon, but it's really not any bigger than when it's high in the sky all by itself."

Click here to visit Wiggins' website, which has more information about the summer solstice and all things astronomical.

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