Most people describe this as the shortest day of the year... That's rather silly though since this day, like every other, still consists of 24 hours! However, it is the calendar day with the shortest amount of daylight hours for us in the Northern Hemisphere. With a sunrise at 7:27 a.m. and a sunset at 4:53 p.m. on the winter solstice this year, we'll only have 9 hrs and 26 min (+ a few seconds) of daylight! This is also the day of the year when the sun is positioned directly overhead at 12-noon. This position is the latitude known as the "Tropic of Capricorn".
The word "solstice" comes from the Latin word "sol" (sun) and "solstitium" (the point at which the sun seems to stand still). There is such a negligible difference in the amount of daylight hours in the few days before and those days immediate following the Winter Solstice that it has been observed that the sun gives the appearance of standing still in its normal trek across the sky. Celebrated since ancient times for various reasons, you needn't have any secret agenda or special reason to come out to relax and socialize with your geocaching buddies... other than having a good time!
Who:: All cachers new and old!
Date: Sunday, December 21, 2014
Time: 5-7 p.m.
Location: Zoe's Kitchen
Plaza America
Reston, VA
Coords: N 38 57.169 W 77 20.951
More details to come shortly... Looking forward to seeing folks that I don't get to see often and the opportunity to meet some new faces.