winter

Don't know if we're a day short of the shortest day, but some sort of winter solstice bonfire would have been a boon over the weekend. Winter solstice ping-pong is challenging, as is walking the canines. Bitter.


A skier and dog outside the Mount St Bernard Hospice
Date: 1927
Record Number: MM 004045


Four men with large snowballs
Record Number: MM 006024

A man and a woman holding large snowballs. It is snowing and they are standing in ankle-deep snow.
Date: CIRCA 1925
Record Number: MM 008539

Images from the Museum Victoria Collection. Biggest Family Album Search for 'Snow'

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Comments: winter

Whether the shortest day is today or tomorrow, the difference is only a matter of a few short seconds.
Posted by Nora at June 21, 2004 05:52 PM

Of the short seconds, which is the shortest?
Posted by boynton at June 21, 2004 06:34 PM


As celestial mechanics would have it, the 21st was the shortest this year. Yesterday was only 573 minutes from sunrise to sunset, whereas today is significantly longer at 574 minutes. The longest of days in December is 886 minutes by comparison. The degree of variation above and below 720 minutes depends almost entirely upon your latitude: at 0 degrees (equator) all days are 12 hours, by the time you get to approx 67 degrees approx (Artic/Antartic circles) at least one day of 24 hours of sunlight, and one of 24 hours darkness.
Posted by phlip at June 22, 2004 12:00 PM

Thanks Philip.

So 'a few short seconds' were actually sixty.
A minute difference.

Now the pressure's on.
How best to use the extra time? ;)
Posted by boynton at June 22, 2004 02:12 PM


You can pull one more errant weed from the garden, I've found. Nora's likely to be right on it only being a few short seconds. It's just that most daylight calculators round to the nearest minute. I'll try to find you a really precise answer sometime soon...
Posted by phlip at June 23, 2004 09:41 AM