Tomorrow to be year’s longest day

Tomorrow to be year’s longest day

File photo of the sun rising over Museum of Islamic Art (MIA), in Doha. Pic: Salim Matramkot/The Peninsula

The Peninsula

DOHA: Qatar Calendar House said that tomorrow (June 21) will be longest day of 2018 in Qatar and all the countries of the Northern Hemisphere as the summer solstice will take place and where the sun will be perfectly perpendicular to the Cancer at 1:15pm Doha time.

According to Dr Bashir Marzouk, astronomer at the Qatar Calendar House, the summer solstice and the rest of the four astronomical seasons occur as a result of the rotation of the Earth around the Sun, in addition to the axis of the Earth at the level of its orbit at an angle of 23.5 degrees.

The Earth has two movements: the first around its axis from west to east once every 24 hours, resulting in the succession of night and day, and the second around the sun once every 365.25 days, resulting in the succession of four astronomical seasons.

Marzouk added that the summer solstice comes after the spring equinox that occurred last March as the Sun’s outward movement continues gradually towards the north after reaching the equator on the day of the spring equinox, gradually increasing the length of the day on the northern hemisphere until it peaks on the day of the summer solstice.

On this day, the sun is completely perpendicular to cancer (23.5 degrees north) and the opposite occurs in the southern hemisphere, where the length of the day is shorter and the night is longer.

The length of the spring has reached 93 days since its beginning on 20 March, while the length of the summer this year will be approximately 94 days until the beginning of autumn at the dawn of September 23.

The summer solstice on this day will occur on the northern hemisphere, while the situation will be reversed in the southern hemisphere where the winter solstice will occur on the same day.

On this day, for places located on the upper latitudes (47.5 and 66.55 N), the phenomenon of morning twilight (Twilight Dawn) will occur in the evening twilight (Twilight of Supper) in a phenomenon that is astronomically known as the midnight sun phenomenon.

Credit: The Peninsula Qatar

URL:https://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/20/06/2018/Tomorrow-to-be-year%E2%80%99s-longest-day