Winter Solstice

Today marks the point at which to Sun is overhead at the most northerly earth latitute that it can reach. That is called the Tropic of Cancer. Now it begins to align with latitudes heading south each time earth turns. Here's a picture from one of my teaching CD's. As you can see, when the Sun is at particular points called Solstices and Equinoxes, the light it throws covers particular hemisphere's. This is what causes seasons. The seasons are reversed in the two hemispheres. When we have a solstice in June, the Northerners call it the Summer Solstice because they get the most light, we call it the winter solstice because wee get less light. This is because the earth is tilted. You can see this on the picture. The picture is actually animated but I can't do that here. If you imagine the latitude of your location in the southern hemisphere, you can see that us lot down in the deep south get more shadow than those in Townsville area! Look at the one marking June Solstice. Lots of light in the north, not so much in the South.

Yay longer days are not too far away, I did some gardening by the moon tinight, was dark when I came in from pruning a few more roses