Happy Winter Solstice, or Yule!  Of course, our spherical planet also gives us the beautiful symmetry of the Summer Solstice (Litha) being celebrated now by our Southern Hemisphere friends.  With the exact Solstice moment at 5:02 am on December 21st, the longest night for those in America and Europe is the night of the 20th.  About half the time or so, the longest night is not the night before the Winter Solstice but rather is the night after the Winter Solstice.  This is different for every time zone, and is easy to figure out (for this year, most places West of the Middle East or so have their longest/shortest night on the night before the Solstice).  If the instant of the Solstice is in the morning (before noon) in your local time zone, then the longest night is the night before.  If it’s in the afternoon or evening, the the longest night is the night after the Winter Solstice for  you.

Celebrations

Some of the ways many of us are celebrating were published a few weeks ago.  I hope all the preparations haven’t been too busy for you – but whether they have or not, now is the time to relax and celebrate!  Everything doesn’t have to be perfectly prepared, after all.

This December, we had several cool astronomical events.  The eclipse and meteor shower are over, but planets Jupiter and Saturn are at their closest today!

Remaining online stuff is below.

Happy Solstice!