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Thank everything that’s holy and/or scientific–today is the winter solstice. We made it. We beat the dark. Only three months to the equinox.
This year I learned a phrase connected with the Roman sun god Sol Invictus, whose birthday was celebrated around the winter solsitce: Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, or “birthday of the unconquered sun.” So happy sun birthday to you–the old star hasn’t fizzled out!
1. It’s the autumnal equinox today, which I would like a lot more if it didn’t signal the beginning of the long descent into darkness. At least it’s only three months to the solstice, right?
2. Blue Moon Ranch is having its seventh annual Open Barn Days this weekend. They’ve expanded to have the event on both Saturday and Sunday, so if you’re attending a yoga retreat one day, you can still see alpacas and crias like Jethro here on the next:
1. Have you heard that astronomers were able to spot a star going supernova within hours of the explosion? It’s also one of the closest to Earth in “a generation,” at 21 million light years away.
The supernova is in the Pinwheel Galaxy, located in the Big Dipper, and it’s gaining brightness by the minute (as massive stellar explosions tend to do); in about two weeks astronomers say it should be visible with a pair of binoculars.
Read more at the Berkley Science Center Lab or from the Bad Astronomer.
2. It’s been hot here, but I can’t bring myself to wish for the weather to break and fall to come. I need to go to the farmers market and the pool and pretend it will be summer forever.
1. It was cloudy here for the super perigee moon last Saturday, which kind of made me feel like the girl who misses the sun shining on Venus in that Bradbury story. But then I read that another full moon that will be almost as bright will happen on May 6 next year. I guess its full phase will be pretty close to perigee–not coinciding perfectly with it like the one that just happened–but it made me feel better.
2. Dr. Sagan would be ashamed of me, but I’m going to say it anyway: I think the “super moon” wreaked emotional havoc over the last week and a half. At least, that’s what I’m blaming.
3. And finally, Toby’s garage explorations are getting a little out of hand:
All he wants to do is play on the Ford Kitty Gym–and of course I can’t say no to him. Spoiled Toby!
1. If you’ve read more than one post I’ve written, you know I keep things pretty insular (solipsistic) here. So of course I haven’t talked about Japan, because what can you say about such destruction? What can you say about images like these? At least they have something left? 
If I could be spared anything, I’d want it to be Toby. But what about those who weren’t spared anything?
2.Ruth Reichl has a way to live with that question. Mostly.
3. When things are upsetting, I like to think about space: This Saturday, a “super perigee moon”–the biggest in almost 20 years–will be out. According to NASA, that’s a full moon that coincides with being closest to Earth in its orbit. But that doesn’t fully explain why it will look so huge:
“For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, low-hanging Moons look unnaturally large when they beam through trees, buildings and other foreground objects.”
There. All it takes is some mystery (not of the “why all this misery?” kind but of the “something incredible is waiting to be known”) and I feel better.
Not only is tonight the winter solstice, but there is a full lunar eclipse, too! The last full moon on the solstice was 20 years ago; the last full lunar eclipse on the solstice was December 21, 1638.
Start here on the NASA site to read up about it–they’ll even have a live web cam (!). The eclipse should start about 11:30 p.m. tonight, with totality starting Tuesday morning at 12:41 a.m. and ending at 1:53 a.m. The whole thing will be happening in the western sky. I hope it’s not cloudy!
(Bonus activity: sing “Total Eclipse of the Moon” to the Bonnie Tyler tune. You’re welcome.)
I am telling myself that it is the first day of summer, not the beginning of the end of long days and warm weather. Here’s a Longfellow quote to fool yourself with:
Then followed that beautiful season… Summer….
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.
If I did, I’d get to see the stars from the Southern Hemisphere. The Astronomy Picture of the Day site had a photo last week demonstrating just that:
On the left the outlines show Orion seen from a beach off Tasmania, and on the right you can see it in the Northern Hemisphere, from the Alborz Mountains in Iran. (See more details and a bigger picture on the APOD site.)
That’s just very cool. My sister-in-law is going to South Africa in the spring and I am jealous!
Today is the winter solstice, marking the official beginning of winter. But since it also marks the shortest day of the year, I like to think of it as the turning point: It can only get lighter and warmer from here.
Let’s celebrate with a light-hearted comic about science (click for big).
Maybe I should have made some gingerbread Carl Sagans this year!
190 years and three days ago, John Keats wrote his “Ode to Autumn,” and, while the astronomical equinox isn’t until tomorrow, it’s a nice way to start the week. Here’s the first stanza; you can read the rest of it here.