The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) announced that the Philippines will experience longest night and the shortest day, today, December 21, 2013 due to the winter solstice.
PAGASA announced earlier that the sun is expected to set in the Manila Bay at 5:32 PM and rise again the next day of 6:17 AM, as confirmed by PAGASA Astronomical Observatory Chief Mario Raymundo.
The estimated night time for December 21, 2013 will last for 12 hours and 45 minutes. The winter solstice is the time of the year when the northern hemisphere gets the least exposure from the sun. Hence, the extended night time.
The opposite of the winter solstice will happen in the southern hemisphere where the summer solstice is experience – the longest day time of the year.
The Winter Solstice begins Dec. 21, 2013, at 5:11 Coordinated Universal Time or 12:11 p.m. Eastern time. On that day, the United States will receive nine hours and 32 minutes of daylight.
The word “solstice” came from the Latin words “sol” for sun and “sisto” for stop. On December 21, 2013, the sun will stop moving southward, pause and begin moving northward.
The solstice occurs due to the Earth’s axis of rotation, which for the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, is faced the furthest away from the sun. At this time, the sun is at the southernmost point in the sky — 23.5 degrees south of the celestial equator known as the Tropic of Cancer.