Last night I made the trek up to Griffith Park Observatory to join the Digital LA crew for a summer solstice celebration. This event was great because it was a diverse group of folks and it was educational. Along with the amazing views we learned that the summer solstice is a result of the Earth’s north-south axis being tilted 23.4 degrees relative to the sun. The tilt causes different amounts of sunlight to reach different regions of the planet. On 6/21/11 the North Pole was tipped more toward the sun than on any other day of 2011. The opposite holds true for the Southern Hemisphere, where it was the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. (Pretty amazing to realize since I have friends all over the world)
As a result, at high noon on the first day of summer, the sun appears at its highest point in the sky—its most directly overhead position—in the Northern Hemisphere. We discovered that no matter where you are in the Northern Hemisphere, the path of the sun across the sky—which rises in the lead-up to the first day of summer, then begins descending over the rest of the summer—seems not to change for the few days before and after the summer solstice.
I love learning/re-learning facts about the solar system!

Below is a slide show of the views and the event. Enjoy!