To readers of The Lamar Ledger: Welcome to Stargazer, an every-other-week column for all who find beauty and wonder in the night sky.Hoping you'll find Stargazer informative and entertaining, I welcome your comments, questions and ideas forcolumn topics, and look forward to hearing from you.

â Paul Derrick

December 21 was the winter solstice, the first day of winter and the shortest day and longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

Have you ever wondered about the word "solstice?" Literally, it means "the Sun stands still," and it happens twice each year, at winter and summer solstice. Of course, the Sun really doesn't stand still -- indeed it doesn't even move, as it's apparent daily movement across our sky comes from Earth's rotation on its axis.

What does stand still is the Sun's rising and setting point on the horizon. The Earth's 23 1/2 degree tilt on its axis, which produces seasons, causes the Sun to rise and set at a slightly different place on the horizon each day of the year.

At the spring equinox the Sun rises exactly due east and sets exactly due west, making day and night each 12 hours in length.

Each day thereafter it rises slightly north of east and sets slightly north of west. Since the Sun's path across the sky tilts to the south in our hemisphere, the Sun is in the sky slightly longer each day, and days grow increasingly longer than nights until the summer solstice.Then the gradual daily northward movement of the Sun's rising and setting points stops and the Sun "stands still.


" The day of the summer solstice is the year's longest day with the Sun in the sky longer than any other day -- at our latitude about 14 hours.

The Sun then reverses course and begins retracing its steps, rising and setting slightly south of where it rose and set the previous day, making each day slightly shorter. At the fall equinox, when it again rises and sets due east and west, the day and night are again of equal length.

The rising and setting points continue to gradually move southward until the winter solstice when the Sun again "stands still" on the year's shortest day -- about 10 hours for us.

So when the Sun recently stood still at its southern-most rising and setting points, it was the shortest day of the year and the beginning of winter, but it also meant each day is now gradually getting longer until the summer solstice.

Knowledge of the movements of the Sun, Moon, planets and stars was important to the lives of the ancients, thus they were quite in tune with rhythms of nature, like the solstices. That we moderns no longer are, I think, is our loss.

[bullet] Sky Calendar.

* Dec. 31 Thurs. evening: 45 minutes after sunset just above the southwestern horizon, Mercury is to the left of brighter Jupiter, and higher up the crescent Moon is above Venus.

* Jan. 3 Sat. morning: The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks; and Earth is at perihelion, nearest the Sun for the year in its slightly elliptical orbit.

* Jan. 4 Sun.: The Moon is at 1st quarter.

* Jan. 10 Sat.: The full Moon is called Moon After Yule and Old Moon.

* Jan. 15 Thu. morning : The gibbous Moon is to lower left of Saturn.

â ¢ Naked-eye Planets. Evening: Brilliant "evening star" Venus dominates the west with Mercury and Jupiter far to the Venus' lower right at dusk. Morning: Saturn is high in the south.

Stargazer appears every other week. Paul Derrick is an amateur astronomer who lives in Waco, TX. Contact him at 918 N. 30th, Waco, TX 76707, (254) 753-6920 or See the Stargazer Web site at