The Winter Solstice

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	The Winter Solstice

carrerinyes

12-20-2008 9:13 PM

949 views

carrerinyes says:

...and space travel. I haven't studied astronomy enough to understand fully how we came to know this. The axis is, after all, an imaginary line. But here's an eloquent perspective on that question from a Candlegrove visitor.
Solstice means...

standing-still-sun

Such precision we have about it now! Winter solstice is when...
...because of the earth's tilt, your hemisphere is leaning farthest away from the sun, and therefore:

The daylight is the shortest.

The sun has its lowest arc in the sky.

3 Comments |

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12-20-2008 10:37 PM

chestnut501

Happy Winter Solstice!

12-21-2008 11:42 AM

wiganfootie

Fascinating,

12-21-2008 2:57 PM

tidbit2

the aul druids knew the mysteries

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/c981ab65-98fc-482c-bbe0-94795613d26b/7F6C1114-5A6E-4AB5-8F15-45EA2A4AD3C9/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.candlegrove.com/solstice.html" href="http://www.candlegrove.com/solstice.html" style="font-size: 11px;">www.candlegrove.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.candlegrove.com/solstice.html"><div align="center"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.candlegrove.com/img/2ACDD83A-F536-4D68-B52E-344355FB9D2B" alt="Solstice" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.candlegrove.com/solstice.html"><BLOCKQUOTE>
<FONT size="-1"><A href="#open">OPENING THOUGHTS</A>
</FONT><P>
<FONT size="-1"><A href="#architecture">ANCIENT SOLSTICE ARCHITECTURES</A>
</FONT></P><P>
<FONT size="-1"><A href="#words">A LINGUISTIC PUZZLE</A>
</FONT></P><P>
<FONT size="-1"><A href="#turta">A FAMILY FERTILITY RITUAL</A>
</FONT></P><P>
<FONT size="-1"><A href="#others">WINTER SOLSTICE IN MANY CULTURES</A>
</FONT></P><P>
<FONT size="-1"><A href="#song">IN SONG</A>
</FONT></P><P>
<FONT size="-1"><A href="#magic">A TIME OF MAGIC</A>
</FONT></P><P>
<FONT size="-1"><A href="#1999">THIS YEAR'S SOLSTICE</A>
</FONT>  
</P></BLOCKQUOTE></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.candlegrove.com/solstice.html"><table background="undefined" bgcolor=""><tr><TD>The Earth is actually nearer the sun in January than it is in June --
by three million miles. Pretty much irrelevant to our planet.  What causes
the seasons is something completely different.  The Earth leans slightly on its axis
like a spinning top frozen in one off-kilter position.  Astronomers have even pinpointed the precise angle of the tilt.  It's 23 degrees and 27 minutes off the perpendicular to the plane of orbit.   This planetary pose is what causes all the variety of our climate; all the drama and poetry of our seasons, since it determines how many hours
and minutes each hemisphere receives precious sunlight.
		</TD></tr></table></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.candlegrove.com/solstice.html"><table background="undefined" bgcolor=""><tr><TD valign="top"><H2><TT>Let's start with the science.</TT></H2>
		</TD></tr></table></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.candlegrove.com/solstice.html">Most of us have known something about this since grade school.
What fascinates me about it is how we figured it out in the first place,
especially before the advent of satellites</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/7F6C1114-5A6E-4AB5-8F15-45EA2A4AD3C9/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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