Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Friday, December 20th.  The sun will rise at 8:15.  It’ll be up for 8 hours and 48 minutes, setting at 5:04.   The moon, 3 days past full, will rise at 8:32 this evening.

The thermometer and snowfall tell us that winter ought to be here.  Well it will be at 12:11 p.m. (17:11 UT) tomorrow afternoon.  At that point the sun will be directly over the Tropic of Capricorn at 23 ½ degrees south latitude.  Odd name because 2,000 years ago the sun was in indeed entering Capricornus.  Now it’s entering in 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 barely make it to 22 degrees above the southern horizon at local noon in Interlochen and be out for only 8 hours and 48 minutes.  If it stayed there all year we’d be in a deep freeze colder than Antarctica.

Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Sun’s view of the Earth at the instant of winter solstice. Created using Celestia.