December - On & Off Earth

December 2024 - On & Off Earth

There are trade-offs putting a house with a wall of glass on the south side, to welcome solar heating, amongst hardwoods. The cooling provided by those fully leafed trees during the warm months becomes less welcome as we revolve into the cool seasons. But, the solar heating improves with every leaf that tumbles to the forest floor and by mid-November it’s too warm and bright to write, or eat, at my ‘summer’ desk. As December’s sun angle nears its lowest point, the Winter Solstice(@ 4:21am on the 21st), I have drifted farther and farther back into my, toasty warm, little tirehouse.

With just the evergreens and a few, hardy, clingy, red oak leaves to block the views, December offers the bundled up wanderer a perspective of our piedmont world unseen for many months. Our ancient, slowly eroding, wrinkled planet reveals its true self more readily in the winter and with far fewer pesky biting bugs and reptiles. It’s even safer to push the limits on outside strolls into the long hours of December darkness.

The first week of December hosts the earliest sunsets of the year (earliest, the 7th @ 4:51pm) and as the sun sets on our part of Earth, our star’s reflected light is easy to spot, well up in the southwest, on our nearest planetary neighbor, Venus. And, the Evening Star is tracking us down.

After 4.5 billion years, our star and its planets have settled into a geometric resonance; each semi-locked into a balanced, predictable, orbital dance. Venus twirls about the sun nine times while Earth is making but five trips. Over the next 3 months, I'll hope you can get out often to watch Venus swing wide in its journey before catching and zipping by us in early March.

Venus will be joined, a little later tonight, by its brightness rival, Jupiter. With a fairly clear view, by 6pm, facing south, you can turn to the left, looking east and see Jupiter, turn right and see Venus. For the first half of the month, the waxing moon will be somewhere along the arc between the two planets. That waxing moon, its reflected sunlight no longer blocked by leaves, offers bonus outdoor lighting to counter December’s early darkness. Get out and check out the lunar crescent left of Venus on the 5th, near Saturn on the 7th, passing Jupiter just shy of full on the 13th. The Full, Long Night, moon will chase Jupiter across the sky the next night.

December offers a chance to highlight the difference between the mythology of Astrology and the science of Astronomy. Earth wobbles about in its orbit, our space view slowly changing over the centuries. Because Scorpio and Sagittarius are very low on Earth’s orbital plane, the sun actually spends the first eighteen days of December in the constellation Ophiuchus, the Snake Bearer, moving into Sagittarius on the 19th. Who knew there was a 13th zodiacal constellation?

After eating cherry tomatoes from my garden deep into November, the reality of the seasons is here, it’s suddenly cold. The deep deposits of evaporated Great Lake water as ‘lake effect’ snow on cities just downwind of those lakes should be a reminder that hurricane preparedness has become snow and ice storm preparedness. Long range forecasts of La Niña and a milder, drier winter will always be interspersed with the daily reality of Earth’s, ever changing, winter weather.

As a retired Holladay and able to enjoy every day as a Holladay, I realize we are shopping and celebrating our way into ‘The Holiday’ season. However you celebrate this festive time of year, this Holladay hopes your holidays are safe and filled with the sharing of much joy and love.

Today On Earth

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