Shadows during Lahaina Noon (5767078745)

Lāhainā Noon is a semi-annual tropical solar phenomenon when the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

culminates at the

zenith The zenith (, ) is an imaginary point directly "above" a particular location, on the celestial sphere. "Above" means in the vertical direction ( plumb line) opposite to the gravity direction at that location ( nadir). The zenith is the "high ...

solar noon Noon (or midday) is 12 o'clock in the daytime. It is written as 12 noon, 12:00 m. (for meridiem, literally 12:00 noon), 12 p.m. (for post meridiem, literally "after noon"), 12 pm, or 12:00 (using a 24-hour clock) or 1200 ( military time). Sola ...

, passing directly overhead (above the subsolar point). The term ''Lāhainā Noon'' was coined by the Bishop Museum in

Hawai'i Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only ...

Details

The subsolar point travels through the

tropics The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referr ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

is the only US state in the tropics and thus the only one to experience Lāhainā Noon. In 2022, the phenomenon occurred in

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

on May 26 and July 16. Hawaii and other locations between the

Tropic of Cancer The Tropic of Cancer, which is also referred to as the Northern Tropic, is the most northerly circle of latitude on Earth at which the Sun can be directly overhead. This occurs on the June solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted tow ...

and

Tropic of Capricorn The Tropic of Capricorn (or the Southern Tropic) is the circle of latitude that contains the subsolar point at the December (or southern) solstice. It is thus the southernmost latitude where the Sun can be seen directly overhead. It also reac ...

receive the sun's direct rays as the apparent path of the sun passes overhead before and after the summer solstice. The Lāhainā Noon can occur anywhere from 12:16 to 12:43 p.m. Hawaii–Aleutian Standard Time. At that moment objects that stand straight up (flagpoles, bollards, telephone poles, etc.) cast no outward shadow. The most southerly points in Hawaii experience Lāhainā Noon on earlier and later dates than the northern parts. For example, in 2001 Hilo on the

Island of Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii ) is the largest island in the United States, located in the state of Hawaii. It is the southeasternmost of the Hawaiian Islands, a chain of volcanic islands in the North Pacific Ocean. With an area of , it has 63% of th ...

encountered the overhead sun around May 18 and July 24,

Kahului Kahului () is a census-designated place (CDP) in Maui County in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It hosts the county's main airport (Kahului Airport), deep-draft harbor, light industrial areas, and commercial shopping centers. The population was 26,337 ...

, Maui on May 24 and July 18,

Oahu Oahu () ( Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over two-thirds of the population of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The island of O� ...

on May 26 and July 15 and

Lihue Lihue or Līhue is an unincorporated community, census-designated place (CDP) and the county seat of Kauai County, Hawaii, United States. Lihue (pronounced ) is the second largest town on the Hawaiian island of Kauai after Kapaa. As of the 2010 ...

, Kauai on May 31 and July 11. Between each pair of dates, the sun is slightly to the north at solar noon. Chosen in a contest sponsored by the Bishop Museum in the 1990s, Lāhainā Noon was the selected appellation because ''lā hainā'' (the old name for Lāhainā, Hawaii) means "cruel sun" in the Hawaiian language. The

ancient Hawaii Ancient Hawaii is the period of Hawaiian history preceding the unification in 1810 of the Kingdom of Hawaii by Kamehameha the Great. Traditionally, researchers estimated the first settlement of the Hawaiian islands as having occurred sporadicall ...

an name for the event was ''kau ka lā i ka lolo'' which translates as "the sun rests on the brains."

Subsolar dates

In popular culture

The event is covered by Hawaii media. Activities are associated with the event. The phenomenon occurs in stories, including "Lāhainā Noon" by Eric Paul Shaffer (Leaping Dog, 2005), which won the Ka Palapala Po'okela book award for Excellence in "Aloha from beyond Hawai'i". ''Sky Gate'', a unique sculpture in Honolulu created by world-renowned artist and landscape architect

Isamu Noguchi was an American artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades, from the 1920s onward. Known for his sculpture and public artworks, Noguchi also designed stage sets for various Martha Graham productions, and severa ...

, features a bendy, bumpy ring that drastically changes height as it goes around. Most of the year, it makes a curvy, twisted shadow on the ground, but during "Lahaina Noon", the height-changing ring casts a perfect circular shadow on the ground.

References

External links

Annual Astronomy Highlights link has current "Lahaina Noon" dates
updated by the Bernice P. Bishop Museum
Picture of "Lahaina Noon"
by the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, note the street sign
Picture of "Lahaina Noon"
by the Honolulu Star-Bulletin Hawaii culture Sun

Details

Subsolar dates

In popular culture

See also

References

Further reading

External links