Nowhere to go but up

As of now – like, right now, as this posts (which is 10:27 PM local, or 03:27 UTC tomorrow) – we have passed the December solstice, and the days are getting longer again, for those of us in the northern hemisphere. The daylight hours, anyway – we’ve been through all read more

Get back up again

That’s right, it’s the winter solstice today, or technically it was at 21:48 UTC, the very time when the sun sank as low as… no, that’s not exactly right, it was actually when the Earth tilted… no, that’s not really right either, it was when the south pole of the Earth was leaned as close to the sun as it can be, the very thing that makes winter in the read more

Not quite on top of it

I had gotten involved in other things this morning and wasn’t playing close attention to the time, and then suddenly realized that I was missing the solstice! So I grabbed the camera and dashed out to snag the shot, to salvage what I could.


This was actually nine minutes past the solstice time of 15:59 UTC, and as you can see, the sun is a few hundredths of an arcsecond higher read more

On this date 60

Well, first of all, on this date every year (more or less,) it’s the winter solstice, the time of the year when the Earth’s axial tilt places the sun at its southernmost point, meaning the daylight for those in the northern hemisphere is the shortest of the year from this point on, the ‘days’ will be getting longer. A little victory to most of us up here.

‘Course, in read more

Too cool, part 43: Something for the solstice


Not only are we going to cross the line on December 21st with the winter solstice, so the days start getting longer thereafter, but we’re going to have an interesting conjunction visible in the early evening sky. Courtesy of Astronomy Picture of the Day (among numerous other sources read more

Not the holiday you plan for

That just ruins it.

Today is, apparently, Get Awakened Twice Before The Alarm Goes Off Day, that rather unwelcome holiday that planning for, or even alerting anyone to ahead of time, defeats the purpose, which is why I couldn’t tell you about it sooner, and in fact didn’t remember myself. Anyway, here it is, and I figured I’d use some of my extra time with posting about it.

The first read more

And back again

Sometimes it’s funny, the things we notice and the things we don’t. Today is the winter solstice, or the day with the least amount of sunlight in the year – daylight will only be increasing now up until June, which I consider a good thing. And it’s also credited as the first day of winter, which is completely ridiculous even when you narrow your frame of reference to the read more

No time, no time

As mentioned earlier, I’ve been involved in several different pursuits at this point and have had little time to devote to the blogarino, and even this one is going to be quick. But you know, that special day has rolled around again, the explanation for why I have been so pressed for time, and the celebration that it’s only getting better from here on in (for six months, anyway): read more

What hump?

Today marks the day we’ve all been waiting for, and by “we” I mean those of us in the northern hemisphere who don’t like the axial tilt of the planet. Yes, today is the day the days no longer day get shorter from here on out the days will be getting longer. No, that’s not true at all, the days are the read more