January Moon, February Cross Quarter

NEARLY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

The January 2010 full moon appears to be the largest of the year, because this moon is the closest to the earth. Mars, in opposition, actually passed by the moon on Friday night, although the appeture of my camera was not large enough to catch it.
















Moonset on January 30, 2010.
The moon appeared to be very large,
and the air was very clear. Here the moon
stands over the Sandia Mountain front, just before it slipped behind the mountains and under the western horizon.








Although frontal clouds had begun to come up from the south, indicating stormy weather tomorrow, the rising sun shows pink and orange on South Mountain, and lights up the houses on
Rancho Verde Hill.










February cross-quarter sunrise from the top of Los Pecos in the high meadow. On the Winter Solstice the sun rose about two fingers to the right, and as the Old Calendar spring progresses, the sunrise will appear further to the left on this picture.










One of the delights of living in the mountains is the opportunity to see the sun rise more than once on a single day. The Ground Hog's Day sunrise redux--from a lower point on the road at the lower end of the high mead0w. At the winter solstice, the sun rose straight above the road in this picture.

Although clouds were coming in, the Ground Hog saw his shadow, and by legend this means six more weeks of winter.


Although I saw the sunrise twice-- I said one blessing: ". . . who forms light and creates darkness, who makes wholeness and fashions all things." I am sure to the ancients, the progress of the sunrise appearing further and further north with each passing week must have been an entirely reassuring sight.

May Cross Quarter Day

The wheel of the year seems to turn faster and faster as the years go by.



Here is the sunrise from a fixed spot in the meadow looking east taken this morning, at 6: 40 AM MDT.

Tomorrow afternoon (MDT) the position of the earth will be half-way between the northern hemisphere vernal equinox and the summer solstice. On the global analemma, as the seasons progress, the sun appears to be crossing between the equator and the Tropic of Cancer, and at the May Cross-Quarter, it appears closer to the Tropic of Cancer. This is due to the tilt of the earth--which causes the seasonal variations in the time and angle of sunlight.



This is a picture taken on the vernal equinox from the same fixed spot in the meadow looking east at 8 AM MDT. If you compare the two pictures, you can see that this morning (top picture) the sun was rising quite a bit further north of east than it was on the Vernal equinox. It is also rising quite a bit earlier, and setting quite a bit later. Until the summer solstice, the days in the northern hemisphere are lengthening. Around the cross-quarter, the length of the daylight seems to be rapidly changing day by day.



Here is the sunset last night from a fixed spot on the back patio. Just six weeks ago, it was setting well to the left of this spot, near the top of the rise you see on on the horizon at the left edge of the picture. The picture was taken at 7:32 PM MDT. In the last week or two, we have noticed that the light is staying in the sky longer after sunset, too, until nearly 9 PM.

Summer is on the way!





Although, by the Old Calendar, Thursday was Beltaine, which was the celebration of the beginning of summer in ancient Europe.

But at 7500 feet, the mountain summer comes slowly,
and the leaves have just erupted on the Aspen on the back patio. This is more than three weeks later than in Albuquerque. The Mountain Mahogany are just showing tiny leaves unfolding, and the scrub oak will not leaf out until June.


These last few days we have experienced another cold snap, although without precipitation. This morning when we commenced our walk at dawn, the air temp was 24 degrees. Now, at mid-morning it is 49.

But I still like the idea that summer is upon us!

Six More Weeks of Winter...

Two astronomical events occured today.
And both were worth getting up for, and were worth running around outside on a cold February morning in various outfits of indoor clothing, in order to capture these special moments on sandisc.*

*Who uses film these days?

The first, was another look at the Jupiter-Venus conjunction.

Very early this morning, Bruce woke me by saying dreamily, "Look, I can see Jupiter and Venus from my pillow. I'm Jupiter and you're Venus."
I couldn't see anything except a blur. But after putting on glasses--great invention!--I looked, I saw, and I ran for the camera. I had to actually go outside to get the picture. But here they are, about 1 degree apart, just above the right end of the dawn-colored clouds. Venus is to the left of Jupiter.

When I slipped back in bed, Bruce murmured that perhaps he'd warm me up by bringing Jupiter even closer to Mars.


After a decent interval, as the sun was actually rising, I got up again, to take a picture of the sun rising on this day, February 2, 2008, also known as Candlemas, Ground Hog's Day, and the Winter-Spring Cross-Quarter Day.

Astronomically speaking, the earth is now half-way between the solstice and the equinox. In the northern hemisphere, we are moving from winter to spring. We are six weeks out from the longest night of the year, and still six-weeks shy of equal day and night. Today is the first day of spring according to the Old Calendar, but Punxsutawny Phil in Pennsylvania, did see his shadow, so officially there are six more weeks of winter.

The new calendar agrees with Phil, but encouraged by the noticably increasing length of daylight, I am going with the old calendar this year.

So, since it was the first day of spring, I sprinted out into the meadow in nightgown and slippers to get a picture of the sun rising over the house on this lovely, clear cross-quarter day. So what if the temperature was 20 degrees, Farenheit, mind you--it's spring!

But Phil had spoken--or at least moved quickly back into his den--so, officially we are doomed to six more weeks of winter. And I suspect that those living in the midwest and northeast can understand that today!



But of course, there was the minority report:

Zoey and Lily did not budge, nor were they afraid of their own shadows. They snoozed comfortably on the dedicated canine daybed in my office.

They are definitely predicting an early spring.

I hope they're right!