Forty-six community members attended the Summer Solstice Day event at Jack C. Davis Observatory on June 20. The observatory's director, Dr. Thomas Herring, along with staff and volunteers, hosted the three-hour event marking the first day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere.
Participants learned about sunspots, magnetic fields, and prominences, including their causes and occurrences. Dr. Herring provided insights into solstices and equinoxes and discussed how telescopes capture images of the Sun.
News 4 from Reno covered the event and aired a report that evening.
The observatory invites those interested in stars and planets to a free Star Party scheduled for Saturday, June 28, at 7 p.m.
During the event, attendees observed the shadow of the Solstice Sun at "local noon," marked on an analemma plot on the observatory patio. This plot displays high noon times throughout the year for Carson City.