Date: 12/21/2010

Number: 1

HELLO again! Here we are again!

What did you think when you first heard that December 21 was the shortest day of the year? When I was young and I first heard that, I thought that they meant that we'd wake up, eat really fast, play outside really fast, eat again and go to bed because the day would be very short. I did not learn about the equinoxes and the alignment of the sun with the earth until I was much older!

Here in Shageluk, Alaska at the Innoko River School, we decided it would be fun to measure our shadows on the day of the Winter Solstice; the shortest day of the year! The sun sits very, very low in the sky at mid-day where we live. We needed to drive to our runway to find a spot big enough and flat enough where we could stand in the sunlight and get a shadow measurement. We had all taken shadow measurements Sept 21, the first day of fall. Most of our middle school student's shadows were between 12' long and 15' long on Sept 21.

Can you guess how long our shadows were Dec 21? You're not even close! Here's your answers: 180 feet long! We almost ran out of room on our airport apron measuring our GIANT shadows!! We had to run in the truck to warm up, it was so cold! We had fun anyway and look forward to another measurement during the Spring equinox, March 21! Thanks for sharing!

Shageluk, AK

Latitude: 62.6 Longitude: -159.8

Observed by: Joyanne
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