Celebrating the summer solstice

Undeterred by poor weather, hundreds of people gathered at Glastonbury Tor, a hill near the World Heritage site Stonehenge in Somerset, England, yesterday to watch the sun rise and set in celebration of the annual summer solstice. Marking the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, the solstice occurs when the Earth's axis of rotation has its maximum tilt towards the Sun. The United Kingdom enjoys nearly 16 hours of sunlight on that day, while countries in the polar region experience a "midnight sun".