2013 Shortest Day - Penrith Nepean River

Although there can be some conjecture as to the shortest day for this year - according to the following info from the Sydney Observatory web site, today was it !
So for a change of scene with my journal, decided to give you a pic of this mornings sunrise (at approx. 7-10am EST Australia). Thank fully the cloud formation was (I think) tremendous to give a magic show. Taken from the M4 motorway bridge looking North down the Nepean River back toward Penrith.

As you can also see in the shot the Nepean River is also actively used for rowing practice from the local rowing club further down river.

View IN LARGE

Whilst there and waiting for the right effect of the sunrise, decided to do some light trails of the traffic across the bridge - see what you think in my Blipfolio.

This year winter solstice, which is the time the Sun is at its furthest north for the year, occurs at 4:06 am Australian Eastern Standard Time on Friday 22 June 2007. That means that Friday is the shortest day. Since the solstice occurs during the night of 21/22 June that is the longest night.

As most of the world apart from New Zealand is behind Australian time, in the time zones of countries like the UK and the USA the solstice occurs the day before that in Australia. Hence there is confusion for some people who have calendars with information sourced from overseas and who consequently think that the solstice and the shortest day are today. I should also point out that though from Friday onwards the days will start to get longer, the differences initially from day to day are only a few seconds and hence not noticeable.

So, whoopee Spring is on the way!!!???

Enjoy