Astronomy Picture of the Day
    


Stars and the Solstice Sun
<< Yesterday 21.06.2007 Tomorrow >>
Stars and the Solstice Sun
Credit & Copyright: Jerry Lodriguss (Catching the Light)
Explanation: If you could turn off the atmosphere's ability to scatter overwhelming sunlight, today's daytime sky might look something like this ... with the Sun surrounded by the stars of the constellations Taurus and Gemini. Of course, today is the Solstice. Traveling along the ecliptic plane, the Sun is at its northernmost position in planet Earth's sky, marking the astronomical beginning of summer in the north. Accurate for the exact time of today's Solstice, this composite image also shows the Sun at the proper scale (about the angular size of the Full Moon). Open star cluster M35 is to the Sun's left, and the other two bright stars in view are Mu and Eta Geminorum. Digitally superimposed on a nighttime image of the stars, the Sun itself is a composite of a picture taken through a solar filter and a series of images of the solar corona recorded during the solar eclipse of February 26, 1998 by Andreas Gada.

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
 < June 2007  >
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su




123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

Based on Astronomy Picture Of the Day

Publications with keywords: solstice - atmosphere
Publications with words: solstice - atmosphere
See also:
All publications on this topic >>