Sunrise Solstice at Stonehenge

影像版權與提供: Pete Strasser (Tuscon, Arizona, USA)
Explanation:
      Today the Sun reaches its northernmost point in the planet Earth's sky. Called a solstice, the date traditionally marks a change of seasons -- from spring to summer in Earth's Northern Hemisphere and from fall to winter in Earth's Southern Hemisphere. Pictured above is the 2005 Summer Solstice celebration at Stonehenge in England. The event was rare because Stonehenge was not always open to the public, and because recent summer solstices there had been annoyingly cloudy. In 2005, however, thousands of people gathered at sunrise to see the sun rise through the 4,000 year old solar monument. Due to the precession of the Earth's rotational axis over the millennia, the Sun no longer rises over Stonehenge in an astronomically significant way, although the photographer was able to find a good spot where the rising Sun appeared over one of Stonehenge's massive standing stones.
說明:
      在地球的天空中，今天太陽運行到最北端的位置。這稱為夏至的日子，傳統上標定了季節的更迭 -- 對地球的北半球來說，從春季進入夏季，對南半球而言，季節由秋天轉成冬天。上面影像呈現了2005年夏至在英格蘭 巨石柱群 (Stonehenge)舉行的慶祝活動。這是個相當罕見的事件，因為巨石柱群通常不對外開放，另外，最近數次的夏至都有討厭的烏雲罩頂。在2005年，日出時分有數千人聚集在這個有四千年歷史的太陽古觀測台，一同觀賞朝陽的蒞臨。由於地球自轉軸會發生進動，經過了數千年後，太陽不再穿過巨石柱群的重要天文標示點。不過，拍攝影像的人還是能找到個好位置，讓冉冉昇起的朝陽好像剛好出現在巨石柱群的一根石柱之上。
資料來源: Scientific American
                 Department of Physics, NCKU