A weather and forecast conjunction alignment provided a cloudless sky for the first Kirkstallhenge unveiling, as the last post in the mistYmuse 20/21 encores.
The sunrise was a bit more northern than I thought, rising behind the second building, but that provided a nice shot as our planet span around a bit more, positioning our view of the sun between the buildings.
You’ve been a great crowd, and I’m sure the ancestors would be proud.
Low cloud on the horizon spoilt the central sunrise, but the sun did pop through the POP clouds a little afterwards. There’s always tomorrow… and the weather forecast’s good!
This morning’s sunrise (really: our first sight of it) shows it’s nearly reached the first of two buildings. It should be in the middle of them in about three days, judging from how its moved from the two trees six days ago:
If there is an alignment of weather and awakening I hope to witness it, and bring you some photos…
I wasn’t expecting to see the sunrise this morning, but hadn’t remembered until seeing the sun that British Summer Time (BST) had started eleven days ago, requiring we turned time on an hour, meaning the sunrise also went on an hour, from 5.51 on the 27th to 6.48 (would’ve been 5.48, as first sight of the sun is about 2/3 minutes earlier per day) on the 28th.
Eleven days later, the ‘sunrise’ today was at 6.24. The ash tree (Yggdrasil) is now budding, and very popular with the birds!
Sun’s Journey Over A Month (Really it’s our orbital journey and changing view)
The ‘sunrise’ continues up the horizon though. Although it seems to be departing for me, earlier and nearly out of sight, for the northern hemisphere as a whole it is in fact more visible; earlier and for longer.
Comparing it to this photo from March 6th (last year, but it’s roughly the same every year) shows how much farther up the horizon it ‘rises’ over a month. This morning it rose between the two trees under ‘Yggdrasil’, where the arrow points.
A year ago yesterday the photos below were taken, and comparing them to photos earlier in the week started the ancient astronomical angle to the mistYmuse.
These three photos were taken over six minutes, and show how our planet’s spin gives us our day: of light and dark. While it looks as if the tower has laid an egg, and left it behind; or sent it rolling up the hill, in fact it is our planet spinning around, with this location now facing the sun giving it ‘morning’.
Last month, I saw Jupiter and Saturn ‘drop into the horizon’ after their conjunction; which was again because of our planet spinning. They were both only visible for a short time then, just above the horizon; and didn’t take long at all to ‘drop out of the sky’ behind some trees.
After Saturn (looking fainter as smaller and farther away) had been at 10 o’ clock to Jupiter all year; if Jupiter was the middle of the ‘clock face’; in December Jupiter overtook Saturn as it is on the inside in the solar system, and so Saturn then looked at 4 o’ clock.
Jupiter’s orbit is 11.86 years and Saturn’s is 29.46 years.
I nearly didn’t bother taking any photos this morning, thinking it was another clear morning one, and not long after the last sunrise position of two days ago.
The misty line of cloud and PinkyOrangePurple colours persuaded me to start, and then I saw it was lighting up that builiding as it rose; giving it another unique view.
The ‘sunrise’ is now half way to the city centre from its midwinter most south-westerly first sighting point, with the big tree and v (a little poetry) convenient markers.
This morning’s photos above, and midwinter ones below.
Happy mistYmuse ist day, as the m departs with only 3 days to go until mistYmuse Y day; this isn’t a mystery worthy of Scooby; and the greenYgrey world solstice day!
This is my contribution to amateur astronomy; the old way; showing how the sunrise (really: our first view of the sun) has started its journey back up the eastern horizon, from its most southerly midwinter point around December 21st (it was cloudy then, so the middle photo is from the 22nd).
The top photo is from November 27th, and the bottom yesterday, both 25/26 days either side of the middle one on December 22nd. In the middle midwinter one, the sun rises in the v, to the right of the big tree, while in the other two it rises to the left of the big tree.
To my brain, it still seems strange that the sun goes back up the eastern horizon, even though we’re going around the sun in a circle (now at about 11 o’clock according to an orrery, compared to 1 o’clock in November):
But, thinking about it, that’s because my brain is still thinking of the humanistic sun ‘rise’, rather than the heliocentric our ‘first view of the sun’. ‘Sunrise’ is of course because of our planet’s spin each ‘day’, rather than our orbit around the sun, which gives us our ‘year’ and ‘seasons’.
The sunrise travelling back up the ‘eastern horizon’ is really that we see it earlier in the northern hemisphere as our planet’s stationary axis tilt is pointing more towards the sun for half of the orbit (measured in our calendar as from December to June, with equal half way with the southern hemisphere in March and September).
The orrery shows the norther hemisphere’s six months of more sunlight are when Earth is ‘south’ of the sun, which makes sense when you think about it (not at first for me!), as we are tipped towards the sun then.
Milky Way View
Another way to check this, and get a better idea of how Earth’s 23.4/5 axis tilt and solar orbit directs our view and time, is to look out from the sun, into space.
Our planet and solar system is in the west of our Milky Way galaxy.
So, sometimes here on Earth, we have a clear view of most of the Milky Way, and other times we’re on the other side of the sun for the best views (of more of the galaxy). As shown on that website, our best views of the Milky Way are just coming up, from February to October, when we’ll be on the inside of the sun during our solar system (in the above image at about 6/7 o’clock) orbit for closer dark sky views of the centre of our galaxy.
That’s why different constellations are visible at different times of the year, and in different parts of the sky. Ursa Major looked quite low in the northern sky during the summer when I used it to see comet neowise, and now it looks directly above us.
That’s because Earth’s position to it has changed, rather than the ‘night sky’ changing. And the same is true of the ‘sunrise’.
Sorry, if the above dragged on a bit, but I’m still working it out myself too!!
mistYmuse 