please empty your brain below
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An exellently timed post!
Rob | 22.12.15 - 6:45 a.m. | #
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This year its the Rather Mild Solstice.
| 22.12.15 - 6:55 a.m. | #
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I always feel happier once the shortest day has past.
John | 22.12.15 - 7:08 a.m. | #
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The best thing about the winter solstice is that it's a pleasant reminder that brighter days are ahead.
Tim | 22.12.15 - 7:38 a.m. | #
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Really educational - thanks.
Roll on lighter evenings!
IslandDweller | 22.12.15 - 7:42 a.m. | #
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@DG ...and if you really fancy having a laugh, try explaining how both sunrise and sunset times are currently getting later, albeit that the gap between is becoming larger e.g. the four seconds tomorrow to which you have referred.
shirokazan | 22.12.15 - 7:42 a.m. | #
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Very interesting read,DG. Let's hope that the world is still around to see all those sunrises and sunsets in 2400. 😕
Jo W | 22.12.15 - 8:01 a.m. | #
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@Shirokazan
You beat me to it. Sunset has been getting later since December 13th (although so far only by three minutes), but sunrise does not start to get earlier until the New Year. The "equation of time" which I am sure DG could explain much better than I, if he wants to.
timbo | 22.12.15 - 8:11 a.m. | #
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I think the world will be around in 2400; barring major star-collisions. The human race - not so certain!
Malcolm | 22.12.15 - 8:20 a.m. | #
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Shirokazan, timbo
He already has.
Pedantic of Purley | 22.12.15 - 8:44 a.m. | #
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I'm looking forward to the period between 2300 and 2315.
I'll make sure to set me alarm !
petras409 | 22.12.15 - 9:15 a.m. | #
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Fascinating read, love it when we get over the hump of the Winter Solstice!
Kevin | 22.12.15 - 9:19 a.m. | #
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Excellent post DG, it's good to enjoy this seasonal look into human attempts at coping with nature.
Herbof | 22.12.15 - 9:24 a.m. | #
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I reckon the apparent day length will be a lot longer tomorrow - IF the forecast is correct.
As 'tis it looks as if it won't really get that light all day in these latitudes. Darn!
Bronchitikat | Homepage | 22.12.15 - 10:10 a.m. | #
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Hope this isn't considered a 2(a) or worse that triggers the OFF-TOPIC KLAXON, but...
[snip]
dg writes: Actually a 5a with 2b and extra 4c.
Gerry | 22.12.15 - 10:12 a.m. | #
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"special rule about leap years not divisible by 400. These aren't leap years,"
2016 is not divisible by 400, but it is a leap year - I think you meant century years not divisible by 400.
dg writes: Agreed, and fixed, thanks.
[snip]
@Pop
Thanks for the link - I thought he had but couldn't find it!
timbo | 22.12.15 - 10:47 a.m. | #
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Is that a record for the quickest snip of a 4e from the middle of my post?
timbo | 22.12.15 - 10:53 a.m. | #
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Great. Clearest explanation of the solstice and its relation to leap years (or should that be the other way round) that I've ever read.
Alan Burkitt-Gray | 22.12.15 - 12:36 p.m. | #
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DG, you've made my day, I hate midwinter with a passion but the knowledge we're over the hump is cheering
Caz | 22.12.15 - 12:57 p.m. | #
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PS : I think we need The Comment Value Hierarchy as a side-bar where we can keep an eye on it (is this a 4e)
dg writes; Done! It's over there on the right, just above the monthly archive.
Caz | 22.12.15 - 12:59 p.m. | #
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Even with the corrective of years divisible by 100 but not by 400 not being leap years the calendar doesn't quite track the earth's orbit of the sun perfectly.
To correct that the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service sometimes decides to add a 'leap second', making either June 30th or December 31st one second longer. There was one in June 2015.
Barney | 22.12.15 - 1:07 p.m. | #
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Solstice Blessing to DG and all his readers :)
Cornish Cockney | 22.12.15 - 1:41 p.m. | #
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@barney
Leap years are because the rotation of the earth on its axis is not exactly divisible by the duration of its orbit round the sun. Leap seconds are for a different reason - the slight variations in the rate of rotation of the earth on its axis.
Next week is a "leap week" (week 53) because we insist on having seven day weeks, which don't divide evenly into 365 (or 366) without remainder. You get 53 weeks if New Years Eve falls on a Thursday.
timbo | 22.12.15 - 3:01 p.m. | #
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Musing today about this fascinating post, my wandering mind has been addressing the issue of how a solstice can occur at a particular time. The shortest day lasts all day, after all, because that's what days do.
So we need a line of observers strung out around a selected line of latitude (any one will do, provided it's outside the tropics). Each observer measures the angular height of the sun when it is at its daily highest (which will be at their local noon) (and notes the time of it using GMT). Someone compares all their readings, all year. Of all these daily highests, one is the lowest in the year. The day and (GMT) time when that occurs is the moment of winter solstice.
Or something.
Malcolm | 22.12.15 - 7:01 p.m. | #
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The solstice is an instant in time - the point when the sun reaches its most northerly point in its travels - which is, by definition, overhead on the Tropic of Cancer. At what longitude on the Tropic it happens depends on the time of day it does it. At that instant, the sun's southerly travel reverses and it is instantaneously stationary (Latin sol-stice - sun-standstill)
The shortest day is the simply date on which the solstice occurs.
timbo | 22.12.15 - 8:37 p.m. | #
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Thank you timbo, that was the something I was searching for. (Minor quibble: I think most northerly and Tropic of Cancer defines the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere, but the summer solstice in the northern parts where DG and I happen to live). The shortest day is in winter.
Malcolm | 22.12.15 - 9:05 p.m. | #
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@Malcolm
Yes, I was thinking of the summer solstice. For winter read south instead of north, and Capricorn instead of Cancer - or go to the Southern hemisphere.
timbo | 23.12.15 - 12:33 a.m. | #
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Same here, 20C on the solstice in Hong Kong. Christmas would be celebrated with some refreshed coolness though.
Patrickov | 23.12.15 - 1:23 p.m. | #
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