Winter Solstice

Time to put a calendar up.

We first bought the Ecological Calendar in 2009 in San Francisco. In a very attactive cardboard wallet are 4 double sided wall charts, so on each solstice and equinox when the astronomical season changes I have to remember to change the charts. The charts from today to March 19th are now up - showing each day on each of the 2 charts for Winter, seasonal star charts, the visible planets (Venus and Mars in the morning, Saturn and Jupiter in the evening at the moment), a sun band showing sun brightness(a lot better by the end of March), the changing phases of the Moon, the variations between high and low tides, and a wonderfully illustrated "earth band" (for this early part of winter showing a bear's lair - it is North America).

I can already see that Mercury joins Venus and Mars in the evening of Christmas day, and that Mars and the Moon appear together as well. If it is a clear sky I'll have to remember to have a look.

This calendar only works for the Northern Hemisphere. The solstice is at 22.03 GMT. The earliest sunset was actually a week or two ago, but it is going to get darker in the morning for a week or two yet. So it is the shortest day, but not in a symmetrical way for us on this spinning top of a world.