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Penticton  

Summer Solstice celebration

People will again gather at Penticton's Munson Mountain this Saturday, June 21,  to mark the Summer Solstice.

The event, at the Pen Henge standing stone array, is being organized by the Penticton meeting group of the Okanagan Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, OCRASC.

If skies are clear, participants will gather at the location at around 8:30 p.m. in anticipation of seeing the shadow cast by the sun over the summer solstice stone extending gradually toward the central heel stone.

Sunset will take place at approximately 8:58 p.m. The actual time of the solstice will be at 3:51 a.m.

The Pen Henge standing stone array is a project spearheaded by Chris Purton and the Okanagan Astronomical Society, which later became part of OCRASC. It was supported by the Penticton City Council and the parks department.

The installation, which is located at the top of Munson above the large Penticton sign on the east side of Okanagan Lake, consists of four stones that delineate the sunset points on the four cardinal dates of the year.

Anchored by the heel stone, the Equinox Stone points to the sun's sunset point at both the spring and fall equinoxes, while the other two stones mark the winter and summer solstice setting points respectively

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