The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Time when the sun stands still

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 22, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Time when the sun stands still

Staff Reporter

A FEW MOMENTS MORE: While the new-age revellers greeted the longest day of the year in the West, the sun had a little prolonged stay on the Hyderabad horizon even as people hurried home like any other day on Wednesday. - Photo: P.V. Sivakumar

HYDERABAD: Wednesday was the longest day this year in the Northern Hemisphere as a result of a 23.5 degree tilt of the earth's axis.

The length of the day varied at all the places on the earth except at the equator, where it was 12 hours and increased as one proceeded to the North from the equator.

Due to this unique feature, the day at Hyderabad was 13 hours 10 minutes, while it was nearly 14 hours at New Delhi.

June 21 is also known as Solstice Summer Day. Derived from Greek mythology it is believed that the sun stands still on this day and the length of the time that lapses between sunrise and sunset is the maximum for the year. Accordingly, the sunset on Wednesday was delayed by minutes in the city.

Association of Hyderabad Amateur Astronomers (AHAA) coordinator Y. Ravi Kiron said another interesting feature of the day was that at 23.5 degrees north latitude, the sun was totally overhead at noon and no shadow was cast.

At this time, the sun is in the cancer constellation and that is why 23.5 degree north latitude is referred to as the Tropic of Cancer.

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