Today, in the dark hours of early morning, the winter solstice occurred. It marked the moment the sun reached its most southern declination in Earth’s sky. The winter solstice occurs on the shortest day and longest night of the year. It marks the first day of winter in the northern hemisphere and first day of summer in the south.
Also today, we inhabitants of Earth were treated to a total lunar eclipse. I went outside at 3 AM to view it. The moon was about 45 degrees above the western horizon. It glowed a dim, reddish color, like a giant, round luminary bag with a candle inside. I tried to take a picture of it, but it was too dim for my camera. The temperature outside was 20-something degrees so after a couple of minutes I retreated back into the warmth of my abode.
A Mr. William Castleman of Gainesville, Florida, captured the 4 hour lunar eclipse and compressed it to a 2 minute video. And bonus: he added a soundtrack. This is modern times; we can’t have an eclipse without a soundtrack! (I think my entire life would have been much better with the right soundtrack.) And I like his choice of music: Claude Debussy, Nocturnes: Sirènes. Suitably celestial, nearly numinous.
Christmas is four days away. The weather prognosticators are predicting a 40% chance of snow on Christmas Day. We’ll see.
Right now, I’m going to drive to Wally World (Walmart) to buy food. See you later.
(Time passes.)
Wow. What a crowd. The store was packed. Stay away from Wally World unless you like rubbing elbows with strangers, breathing other people’s exhaled air, and driving in heavy traffic. But I guess that goes for most any place this time of year. Malls, restaurants, grocery stores … it’s all crazy.
1 comment:
Wow. That was most excellent!
Just think of all the Wiccans that froze their arses off to boink in the light of the heclipse....
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