APOD: 2026 September 20 – Analemma over the Callanish Stones - NASA Science

APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 September 20 –… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss   APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. Analemma over the Callanish Stones Explanation: If you went outside at the same time every day and took a picture that included the Sun , how would the Sun’s position change? A visual answer to that question is an analemma , a composite image taken from the same spot at the same time over the course of a year. The featured analemma was composed from images taken every few days at noon near the village of Callanish in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland , UK . In the foreground are the Callanish Stones , a stone circle built around 2700 BC during humanity’s Bronze Age . It is not known if the placement of the Callanish Stones has or had astronomical significance. The ultimate causes for the figure-8 shape of this and all analemmas are the tilt of the Earth axis and the ellipticity of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun . At the solstice s, the Sun will appear at the top or bottom of an analemma. The featured image was taken near the December solstice and so the Sun appears near the bottom. Equinox es, however, correspond to analemma middle points — not the intersection point . In two days there will be an equinox (“equal night”), when day and night are equal over all of planet Earth. Many cultures celebrate a change of season at an equinox . APOD’s main NASA site is moving : From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod Tomorrow’s picture: open space Date September 20, 2026 Credit & Copyright: Giuseppe Petricca Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff, Jerry Bonnell, Cecilia Chirenti, Keighley Rockcliffe A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC , NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. Random APOD Generator Yesterday’s Image APOD: 2026 September 19 – A Zodiacal Night Tomorrow’s Image — Company newsroom — sourced from NASA. Matter furnished by the company. Not a Notice Nearby paid placement. This page reprints matter furnished by the company from its official newsroom. Notice Nearby did not write this release. Read the original: https://science.nasa.gov/image-article/apod-2026-september-20-analemma-over-the-callanish-stones