Distance
Light Time | 0.98374012 AU
8m s |
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| Angular Size | 31' 34.1" |
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| Altitude | 25.5° |
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Heliographic Latitude
(B0) | -1.76° |
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Heliographic Longitude
(L0) | 168.40° |
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Parallactic Angle
(P) | 7.05° |
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Carrington rotation number
(CR) | 2091 |
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There are three groups of spots on the sun today.Group 1035 is rotating off the NW limb. Group 1036 is in the SW quadrant and still close enough to the center of the Sun's disk that I should have been able to have seen it if it were large enough and my eyes good enough. Group 1037 has rotated onto the disk in the NE quadrant and is almost far enough onto the disk that it should shortly become visible.
| | Groups | Spots | R |
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| North | 0 | 0 | 0 |
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| South | 0 | 0 | 0 |
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| Total | 0 | 0 | 0 |
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| R = (Groups * 10) + Spots) |
The Sun Triangle does not work on the Winter Solstice. It isn't because the triangle is defective but rather because They built a newer building (1212) that blocks the sun until about 1205 EST by which time it is already past and below the lower arm of the triangle. When I arrived at 1130 EST all of the plaza except for the building entrance was in shadow from that building and coupled with the clouds it didn't look like there would be sun in the plaza by noon. As the hour approached the clouds moved off but the building didn't.
December Solstice = Winter
 Cartes du Ciel
At 1247 EST this afternoon it officially became winter. I thought that happened a week ago when I had to stop wearing shorts.
I used to call this the Winter Solstice but I have been seeing it referred to as the December Solstice this year and realized that, although it sounds strange, that is really a better name for it since in the southern hemisphere it is just becoming summer. So from now on, whenever I can remember to do it, I will be referring to solstices and equinoxes by the month during which they occur rather than the northern hemisphere season they usher in.
I noticed that the Sun is not sitting right on R.A. 18:00 at the time of the solstice. It doesn't reach there for 3h 45m. I suspect that this is because Earth is getting close to perihelion and will be moving faster all the time until it gets there in accordance with Kepler's second law (equal area over equal time).
 Cartes du Ciel graphic
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