Quote:
Originally Posted by OzEclipse
I'm not being pedantic and we all know what you meant. Your comment and Ric's reminded me of an interesting quirk of orbital mechanics that was pointed out by Jean Meuus on another forum many years ago.
The Winter solstice marks the longest & shortest days ie time elapsed between sunrise/sunset but not necessarily the earliest or latest sunrises or sunsets which can differ by up to a few weeks because of the Earth's elliptical orbit.
Sunsets began getting later each day on June 15.
Next summer, sunsets don't start getting earlier again until Jan 13,2017 not from the solstice around Dec 21, 2016.
cheers
Joe
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Sorry to say it's got very little to do with the length of day, here is the definition
A solstice is an astronomical event that occurs twice each year (in June and December) as the Sun reaches its highest or lowest excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere. The seasons of the year are directly connected to both the solstices and the equinoxes.
So it's really a moment in time. Like the full moon it's only full for a minute.