Winter Solstice Gathering
(Burrowing Owl Update Below)
The traditional Winter Solstice Gathering at the Cesar Chavez/Dolores Huerta Solar Calendar will take place next Wednesday December 21 at 4 pm, Solar Calendar founder and curator Santiago Casal has announced. The sun will set at 4:53. The forecast is for cool and dry.
Featured speaker will be Alan Gould of the Lawrence Hall of Science. Gould has led these sessions previously. He knows the questions, the answers, and how to explain things clearly and vividly.
Here are some FAQs:
• Where does the Sun set on the equinoxes, solstices, and at various times of year?
• What does “solstice” mean?
• What celebrations happen around the world near the time of winter solstices in different cultures?
• What causes the seasons?
• Is there a free model that shows the Sun-Earth relationships that cause seasons?
• Since the winter solstice is the day with least hours of daylight and most hours of night, is the winter solstice the day of latest sunrise and earliest sunset?
Here is a cheat sheet with the answers:
https://www.planetarium-activities.org/shows/stonehenge/chavez-sun-calendar
Want help with directions for how to get to the Solar Calendar? Go to http://solarcalendar.org/ which has these maps:
Burrowing Owl Update
Alas, no Burrowing Owl photo or video today. This morning (Thursday Dec 15) the owl was not in Perch A, nor in Perch B, nor anywhere else that its friends could see. This has happened before, but the bird usually returns to one of its familiar perches after a day or two. Stay tuned to this space.
I did want to share this nice image that young Jacob Isaacson took on November 25 when the owl was in Perch B. Thanks to David Isaacson, Jacob’s dad, for sharing the pic.
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