Quote:
Originally Posted by Hornblower
If I am not mistaken, the December solstice point is very close to the galactic plane, and the precession of Earth's spin axis will carry that point across the plane sometime in the year 2012. Thus the solstice that year will be the first one in the other galactic hemisphere.
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In fact, that alignment happened more than ten years ago, in May 1998. Jean Meeus reported it in his
Mathematical Astronomy Morsels (Chapter 48), but you can check it with any decent planetarium software.
Grant Hutchison