Saturday, December 21, 2013

Ongoing Phenomenon

Today --Dec. 21, marks one of the four major way stations on the Earth's annual journey around the sun.
Because of the tilt in the Earth's axis of rotation, the sun appears to rise and fall in our sky over the course of a year. It's not the sun itself moving, but the Earth moving relative to the sun.
The Earth's axis currently points in a northerly direction close to the second-magnitude star Polaris, also known as the Pole Star. Everything in the sky, including the sun, appears to revolve around this almost fixed point in the sky. From [Season to Season: Earth's Equinoxes & Solstices (Infographic)

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