By SUZANNE DOWNING
Well, we’ve made it this far. We may as well celebrate the Earth’s axial tilt, which brings the North Pole to its farthest point away from the Sun.
Alaskans reached the darkest point of the year Sunday morning as the December solstice arrived at 6:03 am Alaska Time on Sunday, Dec. 21.
For residents of the Northern Hemisphere, this means it is the longest night and shortest day of the year. From this moment forward, the sun begins its slow climb northward in the sky, and daylight, however incremental (by seconds at first), starts to return. In the Southern Hemisphere, that same solstice marks the longest day and shortest night.
Daylight on Dec. 21, the day winter officially arrives in the north, varies dramatically across Alaska, due to the state’s vast latitudinal span:
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Ketchikan: about 7 hours, 10 minutes
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Sitka: about 6 hours, 47 minutes
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Juneau: about 6 hours, 28 minutes
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Anchorage: about 5 hours, 34 minutes
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Fairbanks: about 3 hours, 53 minutes
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Nome: roughly 3 to 4 hours, with the sun staying very low on the horizon
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Utqiaġvik: zero hours of daylight
Even above the Arctic Circle, where the sun does not rise, Alaskans will still notice subtle changes after Sunday, as solar noon inches higher each day and twilight slowly expands.
The solstice also coincides with a celestial event well-suited to Alaska’s northern skies: the Ursid meteor shower.
The Ursids, named for their radiant in Ursa Minor near Polaris, peak each year around the winter solstice and favor high-latitude observers. Much of Alaska will have clear skies, so viewing conditions are especially favorable, even if the weather is brisk. The shower is predicted to peak at 11:00 UTC on Dec. 22, which corresponds to late evening Dec. 21 and the early morning hours of Dec. 22 in Alaska.
Alaskans can begin watching Sunday evening and continue through dawn. A new moon occurred on Dec. 20, leaving skies super dark through most of the night, with only a very thin waxing crescent setting early. Under clear skies, viewers can expect about 5 to 10 meteors per hour, with occasional bursts that can be higher, according to EarthSky.org.
Because the Ursid radiant is circumpolar at Alaska latitudes, it remains above the horizon all night, often giving northern observers an advantage over those farther south. Meteors can appear anywhere in the sky but will seem to radiate from near the North Star.
