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!
