On The Longest Day Of The Year, We Had Clear Skies And A Backwards Moving Sun

Considering the extreme June Gloom of the last few weeks in L.A., it wouldn’t be surprising if you thought summer was never coming. But it did, officially, at 7:57 a.m. Wednesday, when the summer solstice arrived to clear skies and sunshine.

The Griffith Observatory welcomed the new season at noon in the Gottlieb Transit Corridor, and visitors could watch the sunset on Wednesday at the lower West Observation Terrace, where lines highlight the sun's changing path across the sky from 7:45 to 9 p.m.

What is solstice? 

The Griffith Observatory's director, Ed Krupp, says the word comes from Latin, and it means "sun still."

"That word is a reflection of something that our ancestors observed probably tens of thousands of years ago, maybe even more," he said.

The solstice is a period when there's hardly any shift in the sun’s rising and setting points.

"It's almost impossible for a person — just with the unaided eye and no other really precise instruments — to tell that the sun has actually started moving backward again, which of course it's doing," he said.

Why does the solstice time change every year?

This year’s solstice arrived precisely at 7:57 a.m Pacific time on Wednesday, June 21. according to the National Weather Service. Last year, summer started on June 21 at 2:14 a.m. Pacific. Why the difference?

Krupp says the exact time of the solstice is determined by where the sun is in the sky.

"So that means there can be an exact moment when the sun reaches its most northern point, the farthest it is above the equator of the sky," he said. "And there's a point when it reaches the most southern position below the equator of the sky."

The sun reaches its highest point of the year at noon during summer and its lowest point at noon at the winter solstice. For today's solstice, we get 14 hours and 36 minutes of daylight in Southern California.

What happens if the summer solstice lands on a gloomy day?

Krupp says there was persistent bad weather during the Spring Equinox in March and it didn't look good.

"Astronomy has always been victimized by weather, and you have to be prepared for that."

When there’s cloud cover or fog, Krupp says the observatory uses a powerful flashlight and shines it at the right spot to make the stars and sun's position light up on the observatory’s meridian arc.

"It's not as satisfying, but at least it persuades everybody that Griffith Observatory is on the case."