Winter Solstice, 2008

Due to the tilt of the earth’s axis relative to its orbit around the sun, we experience seasons, and today (about 5am MST, actually) is the Winter Solstice, the point in the earth’s orbit when those of us in the northern hemisphere are smack dab in the middle of winter (of course, that means our friends south of the equator are in short-sleeves and enjoying a sun that’s high in the sky - Summer Solstice). Interestingly, the earth is closer to the sun in December than in July, but our non-circular orbit has no appreciable effect on our seasons.

If you’re an early-bird in the Americas (and assuming it isn’t cloudy in Ireland), you can watch live streaming of the winter solstice from Newgrange between 08:30 UTC and 09:30 UTC. Newgrange is 5000 year old Neolithic passage tomb that was specifically designed such that the morning light of winter solstice sunlight would penetrate into the inner chamber; check out the Newgrange video from 2007.