With the arrival of the Summer Solstice, Summer here in the northern hemisphere has official started. Technically the Solstice occurred today at 4:51PM EDT On this day, the Sun rises the furthest North that it gets in it’s trip around the ecliptic. Until today, sunrise has been creeping to the left (north) as seen on Cam3 (above). It will now start moving back, to the right, towards the south. Today marks the longest day of the year and the shortest night. From now on until the Winter Solstice in December, days will be getting shorter again. Astronomically, the Summer Solstice is when the Sun in it’s path along the ecliptic reaches the furthest point north of the celestial equator. Also ironically, the Summer Solstice  marks the point in the earth’s orbit around the sun when it is the furthest from the sun; the earth’s closest approach to the Sun occurs at the Winter Solstice.