It's official. The sun has reached a declination of about -23.70 degrees, on the 22nd of December, 2015. *I think it maybe -23.07 degrees.* The fall season has now come to an end. The winter is already starting. Last night, the 22nd, I had checked on our local forecast. I was just trying to figure out just how short our daylight was during this day. Well then, what else is interesting this past month? Keep reading, towards the bottom I will explain another, very perplexing, aspect, to the winter solstice. (cont. later)
So as winter starts here, spring has officially ended in the southern hemisphere, and there is still something else peculiar happening. Something which we can notice, as long as we stay here on the northern hemisphere. We're just assuming that's where we live on for now on. It's the moon. While the sun moves about 23 degrees south of the equator, the moon does something equally impressive. This time, it's very mysterious, because of just that- it involves the moon, which, you wouldn't expect to move like the sun across the sky. Yet it does the exact opposite. That's right. It's maximum inclination happens around the 22nd of December, during which the moon is inclined by about... 23 degrees! How is it possible? Well, that's just one of the several strange aspects that are documented concerning the moon. After all, without the moon, it is thought that the Earth may not be as "tiltable" as it is currently. In other words, it wouldn't be as predictable in terms of climate to be able to sustain life as well as it does now. I never knew, however, that the Moon appears much lower in the summer as opposed to how high it appears in the winter! I first noticed this phenomema in my backyard, in the night, as I was wondering why the moon appeared so much higher in the sky than when it did back when I had observed it last time in the summer. Astonishingly, although this is what we observe here, it is much more "interesting" in other parts of the world. And this would concern both the moon and the sun. For example, right now, the sun travels in circles around the Antarctic circle. And here in the northern hemisphere, the sun is totally "blacked out" in much of the northern hemisphere. And in Antarctic circle, as opposed to the arctic circle, the moon is now literally invisible, or nonexistent. And we can also notice that same phenomenon in the northern hemisphere during the summer, if we're in the right place at the right time, even though we can't always be sure that the moon's visible in the first place. So, again, the moon and sun do the exact OPPOSITE of one another. When one is visible all day in the arctic during June, the moon can sometimes be visible all night in the southern hemisphere. And, accordingly, this phenomenon with the moon repeats itself in the arctic in December. ( It travels in circles). The circle is what comes to my mind when I think about the seasons here on Earth. The whole entire year is, in fact, a circle. At least that's how I think of it.
Lastly of all, I would like to say that it was nice to see it was so warm this recently. Well above 60 degrees very recently in some areas of the Northeastern United States. I even checked a global heat map, as weather, as climate, is something I've really gotten to study on some spare time. The time I checked this temperature was about one or two weeks ago, at night, at about ten o'clock or so. The highest reading I noticed nearby around the Great Lakes area, was that in Ontario, Canada. I'm not sure whether this was London or . Anyway, the temperature, according to the heat map, indicated a high of seventy degrees! Anyway, I suppose that's not too surprising. It was in the sixties in many, many places around the northeastern US this week. Or, at least, the temperatures were exceptionally high near the US east coast today, with highs ranging from sixty, to even seventy degrees Fahrenheit! Right here where I am at, the temperature is so mild today. You can even see it on the picture embedded at the top! This is the forecast for Ingham County, MI. I'm not sure about how cold it was during this time of year before, although I can tell you it sure was frigid in recent years. In the last two years in particular, the temperatures were starting to plummet subzero in many areas of MI, at right around this same time of year. And it was more or less the same in many other areas of the US.
The seasons come and go as if they were part of some circle. A circle, just as though the planets travel around our sun in circles. I will be posting another post about these topics in the near future. So stay tuned to any further posts. Follow up on upcoming post will be made available by visiting http://the-fascinating-universe.blogspot.com/
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