Solstice Sun

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Solstice sun at southernmost point
Bruce McClure in TONIGHT | December 21, 2018



Image above: “First light of winter,” wrote Karl Diefenderfer in Yardley, Pennsylvania.

You might think of the solstice as a day, but it’s really a moment. The December solstice happens at 22:23 UTC on December 21, 2018. That time – the moment of solstice – marks the sun’s southernmost point in our sky for this year.

Here in North America, the solstice happens on December 21 (5:23 p.m. EST, 4:23 p.m. CST, 3:23 p.m. MST, 2:23 p.m. PST, 1:23 p.m. Alaskan Time and 12:23 p.m. Hawaiian Time). When is the moment of solstice for your location? (You can find a translation of UTC time to your local time online.)

This month’s full moon happens less than one day after the December solstice: December 22, 2018 at 17:49 UTC. Expect to see a full-looking moon lighting up sky for most of the night on December 21, starting at evening dusk. The last time the December solstice and full moon happened less than one day apart was in 2010, and the next time will be 2029.

Looking at the world map below, you can see that the 2018 December solstice happens when it’s sunset (December 21) in the Americas, sunrise (December 22) along the Asian Pacific Coast, noontime (December 21) for Hawaii and Alaska yet midnight (December 21-22) for Africa and Europe.

By noontime, we mean midday, or midway between sunrise and sunset. By midnight, we mean the middle of the night, or midway between sunset and sunrise.

Day and night sides of Earth at the instant of the December 2018 solstice (December 21, 2018 at 22:23 UTC).
Image via U.S. Naval Observatory.