Winter solstice instant of the solstice can be calculated, direct observation of the solstice by amateurs is impossible because the sun moves too slowly or appears to stand still (the meaning of "solstice"). However, by use of astronomical data tracking, the precise timing of its occurrence is now public knowledge. One cannot directly detect the precise instant of the solstice (by definition, one cannot observe that an object has stopped moving until one later observes that it has not moved further from the preceding spot, or that it has moved in the opposite direction). Further, to be precise to a single day,
Dump months the summer seasonal jobs end, just as with the winter dump months, and moviegoers under the age of 24, who make up 41% of the audience, a larger share than their overall portion of the population, begin to return to school. Tuition payments, and retailers' back-to-school sales further cut into movie grosses; Huntington Bank's annual Backpack Index found in 2017 that costs for school supplies and activity fees, not including taxes or clothing, ranged from $662 for elementary-school students to almost $1,500 for those in high school. "The prevailing wisdom is that people don't go to the movies in August"