Sunrise and sunset

I have been amazed, lately, by how early it gets light, and how late it stays light. If we weren't training the cats not to wake us up for food (it's working, by the way), I wouldn't need to set an alarm in the mornings. I don't feel like drawing my curtains until after 9 pm at night. Wild.

So I thought I'd look up the actual sunrise and sunset times, and see if they're really all that different from when we lived in Philadelphia, or better yet, when we lived in Michigan -- because I know they were definitely different in Michigan compared to Philadelphia. We were much further north in the time zone, and almost as far west as you could be and still be in the same time zone. I'd have to see where we are comparatively, east-to-west, in the time zone here, but I do know we're much further north than we were in Ann Arbor (47th parallel here in Seattle; 44th parallel in Ann Arbor; 40th parallel in Philadelphia).

The US Naval Observatory has some very cool tools, including ones where you can get the sunrise and sunset data for a single day, or a whole year.

So I looked up May 29, 2009, for all three locations, and here's what I got:

• Seattle: Sunrise, 5:17 am; Sunset, 8:57 pm
• Ann Arbor: Sunrise, 6:02 am; Sunset, 8:32 pm (wow, they really are different...)
• Philadelphia: Sunrise, 6:35 am; Sunset, 8:22 pm.

Now I'm curious... how about Summer Solstice?

According to the US Naval Observatory, Summer Solstice 2009 is on June 21st, at 5:45 am UT (Universal Time). In Seattle, we're in the Pacific Time Zone, UT-8, so Summer Solstice for us is at 9:45 pm the night before, June 20th. Ann Arbor and Philadelphia are in the Eastern Time Zone, UT-5, so Summer Solstice is at 12:45 am on June 21st.

Summer Solstice:

• Seattle, June 20th: Sunrise, 5:11 am; Sunset, 9:11 pm
• Ann Arbor, June 21st: Sunrise, 5:59 am; Sunset, 9:15 pm
• Philadelphia, June 21st: Sunrise, 5:32 am; Sunset, 8:33 pm.

So on Summer Solstice, we have

• 16 hours of daylight in Seattle;
• 15 hours, 16 minutes of daylight in Ann Arbor; and
• 15 hours, 1 minute of daylight in Philadelphia.

Very cool!

Today's post is brought to you by the joys of scientific geekdom in the service of spiritual mysticism. :)

--------
Photo: sunset on Lake Michigan, August, 2006, (c) Stasa Morgan-Appel

That was not a dream... it was an earthquake

(Everything's fine.)

I've now been through four earthquakes. Three of them, including the one I slept through, have been in the last year. (!)

I woke up just shy of 5:30 this morning, wondering why on earth one of the cats had chosen just that moment to do kitty yoga so vigorously that she was shaking the bed. She, however, was not on the bed. Her sister was, but she wasn't grooming. I thought, "Is this an earthquake...? It's going on too long to be a heavy truck going by... No, if it was an earthquake, the cats would be hiding under the bed..."

And I fell back to sleep. And dreamed about being in an earthquake.

Later, the alarm went off, the cats demanded breakfast, and I happened to turn on the news.

!

It was no dream! There was a mild earthquake. Details from the Associated Press, here; from the Seattle Times, here.

(The other earthquakes were on the East Coast, in 1986 (epicenter in Ohio); in Manchester, England, in February of 2008, which I slept through (epicenter in Lincolnshire); and Ann Arbor, MI, spring 08 (epicenter in Illinois).)

Winter weather!

We have our first winter storm watch.

Now, I am a total weather geek, and I also love winter weather; so I'm excited at the prospect of actual snow on the ground in Seattle. (Whether or not that actually will happen with this storm remains to be seen, but there does seem to be a real chance of some lowland snow.)

Now I'm glad I brought my winter coat with me, since I'll be taking the bus to Bellevue for a Scottish dance teachers' meeting on Saturday morning. :)

How green building techniques can help save a home during a wildfire

Beloved Wife and I happened to be on a work trip for her to Santa Barbara, CA when the Tea Fire erupted.

Consequently, much of our visit wasn't at all what we expected. But we were safe and mostly well, and Santa Barbara County fared much better than it might have in the face of such a fast-moving and devastating fire. We were definitely impressed by local emergency response.

Having been there during such an intense time, I've been following some of the local news coverage of the fire since returning to Seattle. Today, I came across an interesting article on how one couple's green building choices helped save their home.

Green Building Techniques Save Home on Mountain Drive
One Tea Fire Homeowner's Experience Is a Lesson for Us All

In the midst of the devastation created by the Tea Fire, there are a few stories of families whose homes escaped the fire unscathed. While some of these stories seem like simple twists of fate or, in some cases, miracles, other stories tell of people who strategically designed their homes to survive a fire. Marlene and David Berry's is one of these stories.

Darkness and light, day and night, geek heaven

We arrived in Seattle not long after Lammas, and Fall Equinox is now fast approaching. We've been noticing how dramatic the change has been in the number of hours of daylight, and in when the sun rises and sets. So when it seemed awfully dark this morning, I decided to see what the objective data say over at the US Naval Observatory about what time the sun is rising and setting.

And I discovered a couple of neat things! (Such geekdom...)

First was the "Duration of Daylight/Darkness Table for One Year," which lets you request a table for an entire year for any location with the number of hours of daylight (or darkness) on each day. This is on the Data Services page, which has all kinds of cool things -- complete sun and moon data for one day, info on the rise and set of major solar system objects and bright stars, what fraction of the moon is illuminated, positions of celestial bodies, dates of solstices and equinoxes...

I also discovered the Astronomical Information Center, with all sorts of FAQs about the sun, the moon, how time is computed, etc.

One really neat tidbit: have you ever checked how long it was light, and how long it was dark, at Spring or Fall Equinox, and noticed they're not actually equal where you are? Their "Length of Day and Night at Equinoxes" page explains the relationship between this and how far one is from the equator, etc., and whether day or night is slightly longer at the Equinox, depending on where you are.

I realize this is getting too geeky for some, but it all rather delighted me. :)

Have fun!

Lammas Solar Eclipse

According to NASA,

On August 1, a total solar eclipse will be visible in parts of Canada, northern Greenland, the Arctic, central Russia, Mongolia, and China. The eclipse will sweep across Earth in a narrow path that begins in Canada’s northern province of Nunavut and ends in northern China’s Silk Road region at sunset.

Details are available from NASA; click here.

There's also a partial lunar eclipse coming up on August 16th.

Enjoy!

Happy Lammas!

Summer Solstice!

Yesterday was the Summer Solstice in the northern hemisphere: the day with the most hours of light and the fewest hours of darkness in Earth's 24-hour cycle.

Summer Solstice, or Litha, is one of the eight solar holidays often observed by Pagans of different traditions. Summer Solstice itself is an occurrence, something that happens in nature. In many traditions, what makes something a holiday is two things: its occurrence in nature, and what that means to us. Here's some neat info about the science involved, about the actual occurrence of the Summer Solstice. A Google search for Summer Solstice or Litha can tell you a fair amount about what different traditions have published on the internet about what it means to them.

As someone striving to live her life more in harmony with nature, as someone to whom nature itself is sacred, developing the habit of being more, and more deliberately, aware of what's happening in the natural world around me has been both neat and helpful. Knowing when the Solstices, Equinoxes, and cross-quarter days are helps to orient me to the year, the seasons, and the dark and light; it's kind of like a seasonal compass I always have with me. When it feels like winter's never going to end, or like it's going to be hot much longer than I can tolerate, or I'm wondering why the flowers aren't here yet or the leaves haven't turned yet, knowing where I am in the Wheel of the Year helps me keep perspective.

Some of the places on the Wheel of the Year are pretty intuitive to me -- especially Beltane, Samhain, and Yule. Those are ones where what's happening in the world around me and in my spiritual life are easily and obviously in tune. Litha has always been less intuitive for me. In some ways, that's good: I don't have an investment in doing certain kinds of spiritual work at Midsummer; I can take, perhaps, a more frank look at what's happening in nature and how that is or isn't echoed in my own spiritual life. In some ways, it's harder, because I don't have an established pattern that usually meets my needs.

So, what is happening in nature around me right now?

This is a confused summer here in southeastern Michigan. Our spring and summer have been slow, and cold, for the most part. And rainy: the mold count is high, and I'm having the unusual occurrence of spring allergies and a spring asthma flare-up. After a colder than usual season, we had unexpected heat -- temps in the 90s F -- and when that passed, drops down to the 40s and 50s at night, and 60s and 70s during the day.

I'm used to Lithas that are hot and sticky, and occasionally merely warm. So in a lot of ways, it doesn't quite feel like Solstice yet to me.

But things are blooming, and early veggies are appearing at the Farmers' Market. This is probably the last week for asparagus. There's still rhubarb. Looking out into our yard, what I see in bloom are the star gazer lilies, the astilbe, and the catalpa tree.

I'm reminded a lot of last year's Solstice. I spent it, of all odd things, doing peace work on a military base several hours north of here. It was chilly -- I was in fleece and long pants the whole four days I was there -- but the days were long. I remember walking between buildings at 10:30 at night, and being amazed at the shade of indigo that was the sky.

Right now, in Ann Arbor, the sun rises at 5:58 am, and sets at 9:15 pm. (It really is different "back home": in Philadelphia, the sun rises at 5:32 am, and the sun sets at 8:33 pm.) (Hmmm. In Seattle, where we're moving in August, it's 5:11 am and 9:11 pm. Wow!)

I am getting ready for FGC Summer Gathering, which I'm looking forward to with joy and with some stress. I'm having an allergy and asthma flare-up, which is making it hard for me to feel at peace with my body and with the weather. (If it weren't so rainy, it wouldn't be so moldy, and my lungs would be working better!) I am wishing for more of what I think of as Summer Solstice weather for this area: sunny and warm, not too hot, with occasional Midwestern-typical thunderstorms in the afternoons.

What's happening in the natural world around you just now?

What's happening in your spiritual life?

What does Summer Solstice mean to you?

A cup of tea...

According to scientists at the University of Maryland and Cardiff University, via Environmental Graffiti: English Breakfast Tea can help inhibit anthrax. As long as you take your tea without milk.

Click here for the Cardiff press release.

Too funny!

Daylight Spending Time?

My understanding is that Benjamin Franklin was thinking about saving candles when he came up with daylight saving time. And while it turns out that nowadays we may be saving electricity by changing to DST, it also turns out we might be using more energy to heat and cool our homes. So yes, Daylight Saving Time saves daylight -- but not, necessarily, energy.

Interesting!

Links:

• For the study itself, click here or here (home pages of co-authors, with links to study).
• For a good summary, click here.
• For the NPR story, click here.

England 4: Manchester & Alan Turing

One of our days in Manchester, I briefly visited the new Alan Turing Building at the University of Manchester, as well as the memorial to Alan Turing in Sackville Gardens.


Alan Turing was a brilliant mathematician, cryptologist, and computer scientist in the first half of the 20th century. When he was discovered to be gay, he was arrested and convicted; lost his security clearance, his livelihood, and much of his participation in the world of mathematics; and was forced to undergo hormone treatments. Turing eventually committed suicide.

The statue in Sackville Gardens was dedicated in 2001. Not one major computer company contributed towards this memorial to the father of the computer and computer science.

Yet, he is honored in many other ways.

Still, his story gives me the chills...

Reducing our carbon footprints

Here's an interesting article from the New Yorker on the complexities of reducing carbon footprints. Is it better to grow something locally if it actually uses more energy and produces more greenhouse gases than growing it further away and transporting it? And other questions.

"Big Foot: In measuring carbon emissions, it's easy to confuse morality and science," by Michael Specter.

Total lunar eclipse

There's a total lunar eclipse tonight! Details, including diagrams for different time zones, are available on NASA's Eclipse page.

8:43 pm ET: partial eclipse begins.
10:01 pm ET: total eclipse begins.
10:51 pm: total eclipse ends.
12:09 am: partial eclipse ends.

One BIG ark

One of the reasons being a Pagan, being a Witch, works for me is because of science. For me, science is a way to continue to get to know the Goddess better. (I'm taking organic chemistry right now. I might need to be reminded of that statement when the going is really hard!) Science is all about how nature and the universe work. What could be cooler than that?

So, about Noah's Ark:

There does seem to be scientific evidence of a great flood.

Whether or not there was a man named Noah, or an ark, I do not know, and as far as I know, there's not scientific evidence one way or another.

That doesn't much bother me. If Noah and his ark existed, that's very cool; if not, it's still a neat story from which there's a lot to learn (faith, perseverance, resisting peer pressure, faithfulness, more).

So I don't believe or disbelieve that someone named Noah and his family had, say, giraffes and doves and elephants on a big boat during the flood.

However, I do not for one moment believe Noah, if he existed, had dinosaurs on his ark.