And now the Sun returns, slowly, day by day.
At the top of this image, dead center, just below the top edge, is Venus, the brightest object in the sky except for the Sun and the Moon.
And, of course, a slice of our Christmas lights, a tradition begun over hundreds and thousands of years of civilization, to celebrate holidays for many religions around this time of year, all having some sort of theme about light. Coincidence that they all have a theme of “light” and occur around the time of the shortest daylight hours and longest nighttime hours? Yeah…right.
We might know that Venus is so bright because it’s covered in endless clouds of carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid and we understand its orbital mechanics as well as the exact reasons for the Earth’s seasons and the timing of the solstice, all things about which our ancestors would have been clueless, but it doesn’t change the way we feel about the short days and long nights.
Whether caused by something we did angering the gods or by the 23.44º axial tilt of the Earth, Happy Solstice!
(Please don’t anger the 23.44º axial tilt of the Earth! We have no idea where that path leads!)
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 