Wednesday winks in wide-eyed wonder,
The moon has solstices too!!
Last night, the moon complained: “I do all this work. The hours are horrible. You can only see me when its dark, and then you hardly notice me unless I’m full or blue or putting on a special display. I’m your night light in the sky helping you find your way when the sun is taking a break. I run the tides, and I correct your moods – which goodness knows can use a nudge ot two. What do you think? I just sit up here. I move too. Why does the sun get all the attention? I’m more than a reflection, a bright face and a cheesy thought. Let’s have a little respect.”
The moon is quite correct and I deserve the lunar lecture.
The moon is different from the sun. The moon completes one orbit around us, the Earth, in 29.5 days. We, the Earth, complete one orbit around the sun in 365.25 days (don’t worry about the .25, that’s what the leap years fix). So, in a single year, the sun will reach its northern and southern extremes in the day sky — the sun solstices. In a month, the moon will be at its northern and southern extremes in the night sky. The moon does in a month what the sun does in a year. In all honesty, the moon’s monthly extremes of north and south aren’t really noticed that much (sorry, moon, but it’s the truth), probably because the moon doesn’t set the length of the day or trigger the seasons, as do the sun’s extreme movements. But, every 18.6 years, the big kahuna happens for the moon, and this is noticed and has been noticed for some time.
It is the MAJOR LUNAR STANDSTILL!!
This is the solstice of the moon, but remember “solstice” is a term reserved for the sun (“sol” is a sun reference word). So, the moon solstice is referred to as the “standstill,” when the moon is at its maximum monthly range of rising and setting directions. For the years 2005-2007, and also 2023-2026, each month the moon will rise and set more northerly and about two weeks later more southerly than the solar extremes. Sorry, we missed the last standstill and have to wait for 2023-2026 for the next. During these multi-year periods, the monthly range of lunar extremes to the north and south during moonrise and moonset varies very little. The fact of very little change in the northerly and southerly extremes is what leads to the term “STANDSTILL.”
To restate and hopefully help clarify, at MAJOR LUNAR STANDSTILL, the moon exhibits the maximum monthly range of rising and setting directions. For example, the full Moon near the winter solstice in 2005-07 rose and set the farthest north that the moon ever gets, and farther north than the sun ever gets. Moving our example six months forward, the full moon near the summer solstice in 2005-07 rose and set the farthest south that the moon ever gets, and farther south than the sun ever gets.
That moon sure has its extremes. They are even more complicated and involved than the sun’s antics.
This apparently fascinated our long-ago grandparents. Stonehenge in England is a 5,000-year-old solar and lunar calendar. Callanish, Scotland has another calendar of the same vintage. Chaco Canyon, New Mexico and Chimney Rock, Colorado both have 1,000-year-old calendars. These are all made of stones and rocks and carvings, and they not only keep track of the sun and its shenanigans, they track and record the 18.6 year cycle of our more reserved and less noticed moon. Now, that is fascinating and a wondrous glimpse back in time to how significant the sun and the moon have been and are in the changes that have brought us here to where we are today.
I appreciate both, and I stand still in honor of our night-time light, the moon. Thanks for showing us what you’re about and keeping a quiet check on our extremes.
Tonight, sneak a peek to the sky and say “Hello” to an old friend too,
Grandpa Jim
PS: Much credit is given to Dr. Judith S. Young, Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst for her article ” MOON TEACHINGS FOR THE MASSES AT THE UMASS SUNWHEEL & AROUND THE WORLD: THE MAJOR LUNAR STANDSTILLS OF 2006 & 2024-25.” The basis of the standstill discussion above derives in large measure from her paper, which is an excellent and readable exposition and explanation of a complicated celestial coordination.