Latest news with #SummerSolstice
Daily Mirror
7 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Popular city where you're guaranteed to get the most sun in England
The weather might not be looking great at the moment, but energy experts at Utility Bidder have shared the UK areas that bask in the most sunlight hours a year A renowned UK coastal city officially boasts more sunshine than any other location in England. Despite June being wetter than anticipated, the Summer Solstice is set to occur next Thursday, signalling the commencement of summer. There's one particular seaside city where you're guaranteed to soak up the most sun. Southend-on-Sea, a beloved Essex coastal city nestled on the Thames Estuary, is famed for its world-renowned pier, award-winning beaches, amusement parks, museums, shopping and holds the title for the sunniest spot in the UK, as per energy experts at Utility Bidder. Southend-on-Sea basks in an average of 2,336 sunlight hours annually. Its pier, the longest globally, extends an impressive 1.33 miles. At the pier's end, visitors can explore the pier museum, indulge in afternoon tea at the café, or simply admire the stunning views, reports the Express. Once a modest fishing village, the city is now a favourite amongst holidaymakers, with London stations Fenchurch Street and Liverpool Street just an hour away by train. Home to one of the nation's top free theme parks, Southend-on-Sea was once the final stop on the Tube network. The city now marks the end of a c2c rail route in south Essex. In 2020, it clinched third place in Tripadvisor's Travellers' Choice Awards for the best English theme park, based on public votes. Despite a slight dip in the rankings, it continues to outshine the more famous Chessington. One of the standout features of Adventure Island is its no-entry-fee policy. Guests only fork out for the rides they wish to experience, making it a cost-effective day trip for large parties and families. Taking second place is the port city of Kingston Upon Hull, boasting an impressive 2,336 hours of sunlight annually. Birkenhead and Liverpool secured third and fourth positions respectively, each receiving an average of 2,199 hours of sunlight per year. Two Welsh cities made the top 10, with Swansea ranking sixth with 2,170 annual sunlight hours, and Newport sneaking into ninth place with 2,064 sunlight hours. Londoners need not worry, as the English capital was recognised as one of the UK's sunniest cities, clocking in at eighth place with 2,109 hours of sunlight. Completing the list of the top 10 UK areas with the most sunlight hours was Nottingham, with 2,056 hours of sunshine annually. Top 10 UK areas with the most sunlight hours Southend-on-Sea - 2,336 Kingston upon Hull - 2,251 Birkenhead - 2,199 Liverpool - 2,199 Plymouth - 2,173 Swansea - 2,170 Sunderland - 2,165 London - 2,109 Newport - 2,064 Nottingham - 2,056
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Strawberry Moon to rise over Britain next week, but it will be in an odd place
This month will see the full Strawberry Moon burst into fruit in the UK's skies, but in a rather unusual place. The first full Moon of summer will be unusually low in the sky due to the recent 'lunar standstill', which means the Moon appears low in the sky when it is due south and due to the proximity to this month's Summer Solstice. The Strawberry Moon will be quickly followed by the Summer Solstice - the longest day of the year - which will peak on Saturday 21 June 2025 at 3:41 am The Moon will appear lower in the sky due to last December's 'major lunar standstill', an event that occurs every 18.6 years and means the moon reaches its most extreme positions on the horizon. This means the Moon's path across the sky is longer: 'major lunar standstills' occur when the tilt of the moon and the tilt of the Earth coincide. Moons also always appear lower in the sky around the summer solstice. Nasa said: 'On the summer solstice the Sun appears highest in the sky for the year. Full Moons are opposite the Sun, so a full Moon near the summer solstice will be low in the sky.' In Scotland, people are gathering this month at the standing stones in Callanish to witness the 'lunar standstill' from among the stones erected on the Isle of Lewis from 3,000BC. Pete Lawrence of BBC Sky at Night Magazine says, 'This evening and into the morning of 11 June, the full Moon is very low when due south. 'This is near a 'major lunar standstill', the lowest Moon in an 18.6-year lunar cycle. The Moon will appear bigger because it is near the horizon, which makes people perceive it as larger, relatively speaking. Lawrence says that June 11 is 'a perfect chance to experience the Moon illusion, which makes the low full Moon appear much larger than it really is.' The Moon illusion occurs when the Moon is near the horizon, and makes our satellite appear much bigger. The phenomenon has been known since ancient times but is still not fully understood. The full Moon will peak on the morning of 11 June at 8.44am, but the Moon will appear full for the nights either side of that as well. Full moons roughly line up to the months of the year (the word 'month' comes from the word 'moon'). Because extra days were added to some calendar months to make the year add up to 365 days, months do not line up perfectly with full Moons. The names we use for full Moons today (such as 'cold Moon', 'wolf Moon' and 'harvest Moon') come to us indirectly from Native American traditions Nasa's Gordon Johnston wrote: 'In the 1930s the Maine Farmer's Almanac began publishing 'Indian' names for the full moons, tying these names to the European months. Nasa said that June's full Moon is 'the Strawberry Moon, a name that comes from the relatively short season for harvesting strawberries in the north-eastern United States.' Around the world, June's full Moon is also known as the Flower Moon, Hot Moon and Planting Moon.
New York Post
6 days ago
- General
- New York Post
June 2025: Monthly horoscopes for every zodiac sign
Welcome to June, star seeds, and the inspired ethers of Gemini season. What defines Gemini above all else is curiosity — a deep desire to see, chase, and converse with the unknown and the unexpected. Gemini not only understands but embodies the belief that in the liminal, all things are possible — an optimism that serves us all as we move toward the popsicle sweat and heat static of summer. On June 9th, Jupiter, our gas-giant planet of good fortune, abundance, games of chance, and inclinations of excess, leaves the lofty climes of Gemini for the embryonic bird bath of Cancer — for the first time in a decade. Jupiter is exalted in Cancer, meaning the planet is best positioned to express its prowess and generosity. Because Cancer is the sign of the familial and the nurturing, focus will shift from communication to caretaking, flights of fancy to family in its messy, myriad forms. June 11th brings the full Strawberry Moon in Sagittarius, imploring us to go somewhere we've never gone before, from the micro (dose) to the macro adventure. On June 20, we celebrate the longest day of the year with the Summer Solstice. This day of days also coincides with the onset of Cancer season — when we are all tasked with examining our root systems to cut away what no longer nourishes, and tend to what does. Jupiter in Cancer aligns with the sun on June 24th, making it one of the best days of the year to shoot your shot, launch an endeavor or otherwise roll the dice — with the sure knowledge that the fates are conspiring to bring you more of what you need. On June 25th, the dark New Moon in Cancer arrives. Cancer is ruled by the moon, which makes this the moon-iest new moon of the year. Cancer also reigns over the fourth house of roots and ancestry. Aptly, the lessons of this lunation are relative to where we come from and what we come home to. With an open mind, palm, and mouth, read on to see what June holds for you. Read for your sun and rising sign. 12 katyabogina – With Saturn and Neptune moving through your cardinal bonfires, you may feel the push and pull between duty and dreams, Aries. As the zodiac's first sign, you are possessed of a singular kind of 'little kid' energy, but with these two planets in the mix, you are poised more than ever to become the kind of mischievous adult that children can aspire to be. Together but not uptight, responsible but not rigid, and fervently putting the fun in functional adult, good on ya. 12 katyabogina – I recently went sailing with a resplendent Taurus captain. When the subject of competition arose, she shared, 'I want to be good, but I don't need to be better than anyone else.' As the sun in Gemini highlights your second house of wealth and worth, I hope you will adopt a similar mindset, aiming always to improve but recognizing that being enough does not require you to be better than anyone, save for who you used to be. 12 katyabogina – Happy return of the sun to you, Gemini! A fellow Gemini and Aussie friend of mine recently shared that one of her countrymen, Ander Louis, is in the process of translating Tolstoy's 'War and Peace' into 'bogan Australian,' a working-class dialect that leans heavy on slang and ain't afraid to punctuate with expletives. 'Anna Pavlovna's drawing room was gradually filling' becomes the more casual and colorful, 'Heaps of posh wankers were at Anna's place by now.' In trading language but remaining true to the story, Louis has managed at once to both draw a new audience to Tolstoy and venerate a looked-down-upon vernacular. You are capable of a similar feat this month, Gemini, able as you are to wield words to build worlds — transmogrifying the old to new, dated to daring, intimidating to accessible. 12 katyabogina – Hello, Cancer! The sun in Gemini activates the attic of your twelfth house of the unconscious mind, hidden enemies, and buried meaning. The twelfth house is the house of endings, but from that fade to black comes the slow, steady breath of all that will yet be. My pal, the artist and double Cancer Timothy Goldskin, has a long-standing habit of collecting lost children's shoes that he finds on his travels. When pressed, he told me, 'I don't know what it will be, but if I don't do it, it will never be anything.' I hope you will adopt a similar conviction of collection this month, Cancer, as Jupiter enters your sign, and you ready yourself for your solar return and the possibility of anything and all things. 12 katyabogina – Happy cusp of summer, Leo! With Saturn (structure, building) and Neptune (dreams, delusions) in a fellow fire sign and Pluto (death and reckoning) moving through your partnership zone, change is afoot and the radical is real. The author, yung pueblo writes: 'if you measure the length of your ego, it will equal the distance between you and your freedom if you are far away from yourself, how could you ever be close to another?' I hope you will welcome the summer solstice by closing the gap with an outstretched hand and purposeful step forward. 12 katyabogina – When discussing art and ambition, my older sister, a brilliant Virgo, admitted, 'I want more, but that doesn't mean I'm not content.' With the sun in Gemini rising and shining in your tenth house of legacy and career, I hope you, too, will be sated with and grateful for what you have while nursing a patient hunger for what's next. 12 katyabogina – Ahoy, Libra! The sun in Gemini shines the headlights on your ninth house of expansion, philosophy, moral code, and how you engage with the strange. In honor of this, I would like to offer a bit of practical, pocket philosophy from one of your own, to see you through this month and beyond. Fellow Libra Taryn Toomey sagely advises, 'When you're confused, do the most loving thing.' May you always deliver and receive this ethos. 12 katyabogina – Gemini season activates your eighth house of intimacy, death, resources and regeneration, Scorpio. These are meaty matters, but you generally do not fear the shadowside or the dark underbelly, regarding it as a source to mine from rather than a door to ignore. For the majority of the month, Venus in Taurus will be treading the soft soil in your seventh house of partnerships, suggesting that if your excavations are romantic, you could very well hit the rich pay dirt of an enduring, resourceful relationship. 12 katyabogina – I broke bread with an inspiring and recently divorced artist who has recently opened the door to dating. She told me that she doesn't practice polishing or pleasantries on a first date, cutting quick to the bone and always to the heart. She explained, 'If I'm too much for someone, they'll never be enough for me.' As the sun in Gemini raises the chandelier on your seventh house of partnership, Sagittarius, I encourage you to be your fullest freest self. In doing so, the siren call of the strange will emit from your armpits, a sacred frequency only heard by others that make their home on the outside — the brave and the dangerous who never shy away from an excess of wholeness. 12 katyabogina – The brilliant astrologer Rob Brezsny takes issue with spiritual folk who espouse, 'I am not my body.' He argues, 'This creepy dismissal is an insult and disparagement. It demeans our bodies' magnificent beauty and besmirches our bodies' sublime role in educating our souls,' and suggests we exalt in the body's 'boisterous animal elegance.' As the sun in Gemini highlights your sixth house of ritual, care, and the corporeal form, Capricorn, I hope you will take the opportunity to honor your mortal coil not as the animal that separates you from the spiritual, but the wild one upon whose bare back you ride all the way to enlightenment. 12 katyabogina – The sun in a fellow air sign is an opportunity for you to get wholesomely high, Aquarius. Gemini season kicks down the door of your fifth house of creativity, conviviality, and the inner child. To access this precious, pint-sized psychopomp, make play a priority. Hang upside down, find a hiding spot, climb onto the kitchen counter, look up twice as often as you look down. 12 katyabogina – The sun in Gemini activates your fourth house of origin, Pisces. There is perhaps no more loaded word in the English language than 'mother,' conjuring as it does a deluge of associations and activations. Because Gemini season reminds us that we are ever and always not only capable of, but responsible for, rewriting the story we tell ourselves, I offer you the words of Rumi, 'We are born of love; Love is our mother.' No matter your relationship to the woman who brought you to life, I hope you will live it full and free, knowing exactly where you came from and what you are built for. Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture, and personal experience. To book a reading, visit her website.
Extra.ie
7 days ago
- Extra.ie
When is the longest day of the year in Ireland?
With the clocks going forward in recent weeks, we've been able to enjoy brighter mornings and longer evenings, and it won't be long until the longest day of the year is here. The Summer Solstice is the day that the sun is at its highest point in the sky, meaning it is the longest day of the year as a result of the amount of sunlight hours — and therefore the shortest night! The day was historically celebrated by many cultures throughout the years, and is still seen as a cause to celebrate life through music, dance and events. The Summer Solstice is the day that the sun is at its highest point in the sky, meaning it is the longest day of the year as a result of the amount of sunlight hours — and therefore the shortest night! Pic: Getty Images The Earth revolves around the Sun, and makes one rotation around every 365 days. The Earth's axis is tilted, however, with the Summer Solstice happening when the Earth's poles have their maximum tilt towards the sun. As the sun reaches its highest point on June 21, it means we will have the most daylight of the year, however following the Summer Solstice, less daylight will be given as we move towards the Winter months. The Summer Solstice is seen as the middle of summer and often referred to as midsummer — though in Ireland, it's barely a third of the way through the season! In Ireland, there will be about 17 hours of daylight, due to civil twilight which is a period between sunrise and sunset which will still make it feel bright. Pic: Getty Images In Ireland, there will be about 17 hours of daylight, due to civil twilight, which is a period between sunrise and sunset, which will still make it feel bright. While there are still some celebrations these days, the Solstice was a huge cause of celebration back in the day, with people often expressing their gratitude for surviving another year with good fortune and good food. The day would be celebrated with feasts, music, bonfires and religious rituals. Today, many will mark the Summer Solstice by visiting ancient monuments like Stonehenge or Newgrange.
Daily Record
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Artists put the 'A' in Ayrshire at latest showcase in Alloway
The region's top artists were on show as they proudly displayed their latest creations. Art lovers were in for a real treat when the latest event, organised by the Handmade in Ayr Market, took place at Alloway Village Hall. On this occasion it was the region's top artists who were on show as they proudly displayed their latest creations. Once again the event was smash hit and well supported by members of the public. And Leona Stewart, organiser of the Handmade in Ayr Art Market, was delighted with the turnout. She said: 'The Handmade in Ayr Art Market at Alloway Village Hall was a fabulous display of local Ayrshire artists displaying their original paintings, prints, watercolours, drawings and interactive resin art! 'It was also a successful day for the public to meet the artists directly, commission work and buy direct from the artists.' Handmade in Ayr is back at the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum on Saturday, June 21 from 5.30-9pm for an evening celebration of the Summer Solstice. There will be the usual Handmade in Ayr Market with 30 art and craft stalls in the Museum and there will be an Ayrshire Food Network Market event in the Museum Gardens too- with entertainment, summer cocktails and music for everyone to enjoy. It's a free event and more details can be found by following Handmade in Ayr on Facebook (@ayrmarket) and Instagram (@handmadeayr).
