Because of the pandemic, the UK summer solstice at Stonehenge was live streamed on Facebook in 2020 and will be again this year! In 2021, English Heritage hopes to offer a combined virtual and in-person event. Traditionally, hundreds of visitors travel to Wiltshire, England, on the UK summer solstice to witness this magnificent event. At Stonehenge on the summer solstice, the sun rises behind the Heel Stone in the north-east part of the horizon and its first rays shine into the heart of Stonehenge. The sarsen stones at Stonehenge, put up in at the centre of the site in about 2500 BC, were carefully aligned to line up with the movements of the sun. Update: Sunrise and sunset will be live-streamed by English Heritage due to COVID restrictions making the event unable to go ahead in person. UK summer solstice 2021 date: this year the summer solstice in the Northern hemisphere will happen on Monday June 21 2021. The sun will rise between 04:45-04:50 and set between 21:20-21:25 (it differs slightly depending on your exact location), giving us the longest day of the year. This extra day means that the day of the solstice changes each year. Every 4 years we add an extra day, creating a leap year, to keep time with the seasons. The Gregorian calendar has 364 days in a calendar year, representing the amount of time it takes to travel around the sun. The date of the summer solstice changes each year because of the Gregorian calendar. In the Northern hemisphere, the summer solstice is usually between June 20 and June 22, while in the Southern Hemisphere, the summer solstice is usually between December 20 and December 22. The summer solstice marks the end of spring and the start of summer, but the winter solstice marks the end of autumn and the start of winter. One is the summer solstice and one is the winter solstice, but the season that you welcome for each solstice depends on which hemisphere you live in. There are two solstices each year: one in June, and one in December. After the summer solstice, the days get shorter and shorter until the shortest day and the longest night of the year is reached on the winter solstice. It is the peak of the solar year, with the sun at the height of its “life-giving power”. The sun reaches its highest point in the sky on the summer solstice, and is this is why it is also the longest day and the shortest night of the year. The summer solstice is an astrological event that occurs when one of Earth’s axis, or poles, is at its maximum tilt. In contrast, countries in the Southern hemisphere, such as Australia, New Zealand and South America experience winter at this time, because the Southern hemisphere is tilted away from the sun. When the Northern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun, Europe, Canada, America and parts of Asia experience their summer, with longer, warmer days and the summer solstice at the peak of summer on the longest day of the year. The solstice marks the point in time that one of the Earth’s poles is in its maximum tilt towards the sun, while the other is in its maximum tilt away from the sun. As it rotates around the sun throughout the year, each hemisphere, northern and southern, experiences half a year tilted toward the sun, and the other half tilted away from it. Planet Earth is tilted at about 23.5 degrees.
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