The Longest Day of the Year

Due to the tilt of the earth’s axis relative to its orbit around the sun, we experience seasons, and today (this morning, actually) was the Summer Solstice, the point in the earth’s orbit when those of us in the northern hemisphere are smack dab in the middle of summer (of course, that means our friends south of the equator are in fleece and skiing - Winter Solstice). Interestingly, the earth is closer to the sun in December than in July, but our non-circular orbit has no appreciable effect on our seasons. This image captures the change in sunrises from the beginning of winter, though the beginning of spring, and to the beginning of summer. In the summer, the sun rises more to the north riding high in the sky, in the winter, more to the south grazing the horizon.