Keyboard shortcuts

Press or to navigate between chapters

Press S or / to search in the book

Press ? to show this help

Press Esc to hide this help

Northern Solstice

EpochConfidence
Northern SolsticeHigh

Overview

This is the approximate date and time of this year's Northern Solstice. In the Northern Hemisphere this is known as the Summer Solstice. In the Southern Hemisphere it is known as the Winter Solstice. It is the time when the Northern Hemisphere experiences its longest day while the Southern Hemisphere experiences its shortest day.

Info

The Northern Solstice usually occurs around June 20th. Over time, roughly in a cycle of 25,772 years, Earth's axes precess, causing the equinoxes and solstices to slowly drift through the entire year.

Accuracy

The accuracy of this calculation depends on the precision of Meeus's calculations. On top of that, my solutions don't exactly match those provided by Meeus, either due to Javascript's base-2 calculations or due to misinterpreting steps such as adding Terrestrial Time. Overall these results are very close, usually within a few minutes of reality.

Source

This calculation was sourced from Astronomical Algorithms (1991) by Jean Meeus.

This cycle can be calibrated using the ephemerides at this website.