Explanation: The 2019 December Solstice, on the first day of winter in planet Earth's northern hemisphere and summer in the south, is at 4:19 Universal Time December 22. That's December 21 for North America, though. Celebrate with a timelapse animation of the Sun's seasonal progression through the sky. It was made with solargraph images from an ingenious array of 27 pinhole cameras. The first frame from the Solarcan camera matrix was recorded near December 21, 2018. The last frame in the series finished near June 21, 2019, the northern summer solstice. All 27 camera exposures were started at the same time, with a camera covered and removed from the array once a week. Viewed consecutively the pinhole camera pictures accumulate the traces of the Sun's daily path from winter (bottom) to summer (top) solstice. Traces of the Sun's path are reflected by the foreground Williestruther Loch, in the Scottish Borders. Just select the image or follow this link to play the entire 27 frame (gif) timelapse.
Re: APOD: Solstice to Solstice Solargraph... (2019 Dec 21)
Posted: Sat Dec 21, 2019 10:56 am
by JohnD
That picture doesn't show the Summer solstice! Even in northern Scotland the Sun goes lot higher in summer, and this is from the Borders, barely out of England!
Click on the last link to the timelapse to see the whole series. The Sun goes out of the top of the frame!
John
Re: APOD: Solstice to Solstice Solargraph... (2019 Dec 21)
Posted: Sat Dec 21, 2019 3:01 pm
by orin stepanek
solarcanMatrixSolstice_5.jpg (12.28 KiB) Viewed 7310 times
IMO: One of the Pretties STS's
I have ever seen! Kudos to
the photographer!
Also; thanks John about the
summer starting point for the
rest of the Solstice!
Re: APOD: Solstice to Solstice Solargraph... (2019 Dec 21)
Posted: Sat Dec 21, 2019 3:17 pm
by Chris Peterson
We celebrate the winter solstice each year, and tonight, as every year, I'll read this for our guests:
From dipper's Archer of the Milky Way
To twinkling Twins in starry Gemini,
Our Sun climbs slowly northward, day by day,
Past stars that shine unseen in azure sky.
From Archer unto Capricornus, and
Aquarius to coupled Pisces when
The month of March is reigning o'er the land,
And nature, roused by spring, awakes again.
From Pisces to the Ram, our Sun ascends,
To Taurus and at length to Gemini
When, lingering, the springtime season ends,
And Vega beams like herald of July.
From sear December unto verdant June,
Our Sun shines higher with each passing noon.
-Charles Nevers Holmes, presented at a Mt. Wilson astronomical conference in 1923
Re: APOD: Solstice to Solstice Solargraph... (2019 Dec 21)
Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2019 1:11 am
by wercozy
The Solargraph may be genius, but the way it is presented to the common people is only 2/3rds of what it could be. Why is the top 1/3rd cut off from view? Why is the lake more important to view than the crest of the wave? No photograph, or video needs all that lower blackness in the foreground. I'm off now to find a full solstice to solstice photo or video. I know they are out there because I have seen them.
This is not a huge criticism of the photographer. I love APOD and have been a faithful daily viewer since 1995.
Re: APOD: Solstice to Solstice Solargraph... (2019 Dec 21)
Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2019 11:19 am
by owlice
wercozy wrote: ↑Sun Dec 22, 2019 1:11 am
Why is the top 1/3rd cut off from view?
This APOD is about the winter solstice.
Re: APOD: Solstice to Solstice Solargraph... (2019 Dec 21)
Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2019 11:19 am
by owlice
JohnD wrote: ↑Sat Dec 21, 2019 10:56 am
That picture doesn't show the Summer solstice! Even in northern Scotland the Sun goes lot higher in summer, and this is from the Borders, barely out of England!
Click on the last link to the timelapse to see the whole series. The Sun goes out of the top of the frame!
John
Why should it, when it's about the winter solstice?
Re: APOD: Solstice to Solstice Solargraph... (2019 Dec 21)
wercozy wrote: ↑Sun Dec 22, 2019 1:11 am
Why is the top 1/3rd cut off from view?
This APOD is about the winter solstice.
The APOD is sort of about that. But the image isn't. It's a valid question. It could be an error is calculating the size of film needed. It could be an aesthetic choice to center the horizon. I don't know. And it doesn't particularly bother me. But personally, if I were going to the effort to put something like this together, I'd probably try to avoid having the Sun go out of frame for three months.
Re: APOD: Solstice to Solstice Solargraph... (2019 Dec 21)
wercozy wrote: ↑Sun Dec 22, 2019 1:11 am
Why is the top 1/3rd cut off from view?
This APOD is about the winter solstice.
The APOD is sort of about that. But the image isn't. It's a valid question. It could be an error is calculating the size of film needed. It could be an aesthetic choice to center the horizon. I don't know. And it doesn't particularly bother me. But personally, if I were going to the effort to put something like this together, I'd probably try to avoid having the Sun go out of frame for three months.
That's a good point, Chris.
For myself, I can't think of the winter solstice without associating it with Stonehenge after watching a BBC documentary, which claimed that Stonehenge was probably built to mark the winter solstice, and that the celebration of the winter solstice was more important for the Bronze Age Bitons than the summer solstice. The documentary also said that the retreating ice shield of the latest Ice Age left behind groves in the soil of Salisbury. These groves pointed in the direction of the setting Sun at the winter solstice, and this might have been the reason for building the Stonehenge monument in the first place.