A Peaceful 2014 December Solstice

Northern Solstice: Changing Perspective Point

 

Once again I am reminded that life is about change and adapting to change. For the past decade I have been celebrating nature cycles marked by sun positions in the sky: namely solstices and equinoxes. My celebration is quite simple: wherever I am in the world I go outside with my camera and take photographs of the sun rising and setting, to record these special marking of the sun in the sky. So far my sun recordings have always been in the northern hemisphere and I was referring to December 21 as the winter solstice day and June 21 was the summer solstice. Now that I am in the southern hemisphere I am learning to call June 21 the northern solstice, and December 21 the southern solstice. Everything is relative and now June 21 has become the shortest day of the day announced by the northward equinox, which once for me was the spring equinox.

This morning I woke up with the sense of depression which has become almost constant in the past two months —a cocktail of stress, anxiety, sadness, nostalgia and regret; but I decided to greet this important day of the year, even if for me was announcing the second winter in six month. I was rewarded, as the sense of heaviness lifted while I was witnessing the sun rising from across the Corio Bay. It was not really a spectacular sunrise, yet it brought a sense of calm and feeling of connection with this foreign land.

Walking back to my accommodation, I looked at low sun light from a different viewpoint, which offered one of the sought after sunrise compositions.  I had an epiphany that sometimes the same object of observation is more interesting and can become beautiful is seen from a different perspective point. Perhaps I should apply it to my troubled academic journey and embrace this change, although quite different from expectations.

Peaceful Solstice 2012

Events | Winter Solstice 2011

 

The December solstice —the winter solstice in the Norther Hemisphere— occurs at 05:30 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) on December 22, 2011.

The winter solstice occurs when the Earth axial tilt of its polar hemisphere is farthest away from the Sun, at an angle 23° 26'.

Events Northern Hemisphere | Moon Geometry during the Total Lunar Eclipse, December 21

The Moon Geometry | photo credit: daniela bertol

Above are a few time lapse photographs of the historic astronomical event ---lunar eclipse at winter solstice has not happened since 1638.
The "moon geometry" from the earth path is recorded from a stationary point. My tripod and camera were placed near the Alma Mater statue at the Columbia University campus, which hosted the event. The very cold weather ---and lack of better photo equipment--- prevented me from taking better resolution images...but quoting de Coubertin "L'important dans la vie ce n'est point le triomphe, mais le combat, l'essentiel ce n'est pas d'avoir vaincu mais de s'être bien battu."

Events, Earth Northern Hemisphere | Total Lunar Eclipse, December 21

Today and tomorrow (winter solstice) are very busy days for sky observers.

Stargazers from the Northern Hemisphere tonight will be entertained by a total lunar eclipse, happening right at winter solstice ---a sky event which was not happening since 1638!

Below is more information, courtesy of NASA, for those of us who will venture in the frigid northeast night to document it or just enjoy this very special moment in the universe:

"The Moon's orbital trajectory takes it through the northern half of Earth's umbral shadow. Although the eclipse is not central, the total phase still lasts 72 minutes. The Moon's path through Earth's shadows as well as a map illustrating worldwide visibility of the event are shown in Figure 4. The timings of the major eclipse phases are listed below.

Penumbral Eclipse Begins: 05:29:17 UT
Partial Eclipse Begins: 06:32:37 UT
Total Eclipse Begins: 07:40:47 UT
Greatest Eclipse: 08:16:57 UT
Total Eclipse Ends: 08:53:08 UT
Partial Eclipse Ends: 10:01:20 UT
Penumbral Eclipse Ends: 11:04:31 UT

At the instant of greatest eclipse (08:17 UT) the Moon lies near the zenith for observers in southern California and Baja Mexico. At this time, the umbral magnitude peaks at 1.2561 as the Moon's southern limb passes 2.8 arc-minutes north of the shadow's central axis. In contrast, the Moon's northern limb lies 8.1 arc-minutes from the northern edge of the umbra and 34.6 arc-minutes from the shadow center. Thus, the southern half of the Moon will appear much darker than the northern half because it lies deeper in the umbra. Since the Moon samples a large range of umbral depths during totality, its appearance will change dramatically with time. It is not possible to predict the exact brightness distribution in the umbra, so observers are encouraged to estimate the Danjon value at different times during totality (see Danjon Scale of Lunar Eclipse Brightness). Note that it may also be necessary to assign different Danjon values to different portions of the Moon (i.e., north vs. south)."

from NASA page on the 2010 eclipses

And if want to visualize the sun-earth-geometry find here a computer animation I did a few years ago.

Enjoy la bella luna!

Moon at Sun Farm