As we approach full moon and winter solstice, I’d like to draw your attention to a website I visit every day: Time and Date. The information I gather from here has been recorded in numerous notebooks over the years. Sometimes I’d record only the times for sunrise and sunset. Other occasions, I’d also record the moonrise, moonset, illumination percentage, daylight hours and the angles of the rising and setting of both the sun and the moon.
There’s lots of other information on the site that pertains to time, including the World Clock and Calendars. If you want to track anything in the sky, including planets, you’ll find information here. The sweet thing is, you can get it as it pertains to your location regardless of where you are in the world.
The illumination of the moon is real time (or at least as real as I’m going to find it). Just before I posted this, the moon was at 98.9% on its way to becoming full. This website says it will be full December 19th at 12:35 am, my time.
The site also tells me when to expect the sunrise on winter solstice: December 21st at 7:50 am. Winter arrives at 11:59 am.
Check it out here: Time and Date.
Diane McGyver 