5:25 PM
| Sunrise at | 7:48 AM | in direction | 92° | East |  |
| Sunset at | 7:35 PM | in direction | 268° | West |  |
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| Looking to the south from our deck |
The moon has returned. The moon and stars have been absent from our skies since last May and although the slide into winter's night moves at an alarmingly fast rate, the visibility of celestial friends is welcome. Last night's moon was especially beautiful. The moon's orbit is low on the horizon. It does not follow the same path from solar year to solar year so I haven't seen the exact same sky rotation during the winter. It's progress across the sky is fast and at times through the winter season, it will not set, but circles around the perimeter of the horizon.
When I first truly appreciated this phenomena was the first year I moved here. I was facing north in a meeting with co-workers near the solstice. Twilight brightened our surroundings, although the sun was not visible. Since the sun was down, the hues were grey, several shades of white, and interspersed with the black of spruce trees. Most unexpectedly, to me, the moon appeared through one of the windows along the northern horizon. As the meeting progressed, I would occasionally glance at the window. I watched it move across the northern sky, becoming visible in one window and disappearing from it in less than an hour. The combination of seeing it in the north, during winter twilight, relationship to the horizon, and the speed at which it moved was an exciting and beautiful phenomenon.
It's brightness is always welcome, especially when reflected in snow's white.
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