Tomorrow is the biggest night of the year - It will coincide with spotting Arctic

On Tuesday afternoon, December 21, at approximately 6 p.m. Cyprus time, the Sun will be at the winter solstice, so this winter will typically begin in Greece and in the northern hemisphere in general. In fact, the winter solstice will almost coincide with the peak of the last drizzle of the year, the Arctic.

The night of the solstice, the first of winter, as well as the next ones will be the longest of the year in duration. Conversely, summer will begin in the southern hemisphere, with the day at its peak.

When the Sun passes the winter solstice, it begins to rise higher and higher in the sky again, with the result that the day regains the lost "ground" again, until at the vernal equinox the light and the darkness again have almost equal duration.

The winter solstice does not always "fall" on the same date, but ranges between the 20th and the 23rd of December, with the most probable dates being the 21st and the 22nd. These calendar fluctuations are due to the Gregorian Calendar.

The winter solstice no longer occurs on December 25, as in the time of Christ, but a little earlier, because the older Julian Calendar, introduced by Julius Caesar from 44 BC, has been replaced. and which had established the winter solstice on December 25, but lost one day every 128 years. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII introduced a new calendar, named after him (Gregorian), which loses only one day in its 4.000 years.

The Sun was worshiped by the ancients as a god and almost all ancient peoples instituted various festivals in his honor, from the Scandinavians and Iranians to the Maya and the Incas. Almost everywhere, the biggest celebrations took place during the winter solstice, which was considered the celebration of the birth of the Sun, which also marked the beginning of the new year. Prehistoric monuments such as Stonehenge in Britain are believed to have been associated with recording the movements of the Sun in the sky.

Central to the Romans was the celebration of the "invincible Sun" on December 25, when it was celebrated that the Sun began to rise in the sky again and thus the days grew. The first Christians in Rome, who secretly resorted to their catacombs, decided to celebrate the birth of Christ on the same date, December 25, when the Romans were celebrating their own feasts of Saturnalia.

Arctic

On the night of December 21st, the relatively light rain of rising stars Arctic will peak, the last "falling stars" of the year. The Arctic, which occurs between December 17-25 and produces five to ten meteors an hour, comes from dust left behind by Comet Tuttle, first discovered in 1790.

The conquerors seem to come from the direction of the constellation Ursa Minor, hence their name. But because it is preceded by a full moon on December 19, the sky will not be dark enough for good observation, as the bright moon will "overshadow" most meteors.

Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ