dailybell: Happy 6th Night

dailybell

2008 was the inaugural year in an ongoing, aspirational project dedicated to the observation of the sun every time it crosses the horizon and to sharing the awareness of that moment with others while ringing bells. It is based on the conviction that something as inarguable as the movement of the earth can be used as a point of unity and awareness among large groups of people who might otherwise find it impossible to agree. Want to Participate? www.facebook.com/dailybell.sunwatch/

Friday, December 3, 2021

Happy 6th Night

December 3, 2021. Sunset 4:50 PM. San Francisco, CA.

The 6th night of Hanukkah is brighter than the 5th and tomorrow will be just a bit brighter—Sunset time has also bottomed out! Today is also the 3rd day in a row that the sun is setting at its earliest moment. It will continue to set at the same time for another week before finally opening up again. However, the sun continues to rise later and later each day shortening our days until the Solstice when the day slowly begins to blossom. Coming very soon!!

Have a look at this little graph of the rates of change in sunrise and sunset times- We are sitting the middle of that flat area of dots tracing the sunset on the right. The Winter Solstice is that little red dot in the middle.

I continue to marvel at how unlike an accordion is the collapse and expansion of the daylight. The lopsided approach to the Solstice is far more interesting with one end of the day holding steady at the end of its cycle while the other end of the day finishes in its own time. And we wait.