infraredarmy

I went and had a mini Solstice celebration tonight.

In small discord channel I made some jokes about flipping off the Moon, but astute astronomical observers would have noticed the flaw in this plan, namely that Moon rise is 1am tonight, a fact I did not realise until I stepped out and went "??? where is the Moon? is it a new Moon tonight?????"

Anyway, I do feel like it was fitting to go out into the longest night of the year, when it is still dark because not only has the sun set, the Moon hasn't even risen yet, and sing a Solstice song.

So I went out into the dark and-- I could see the galaxy.

I'll admit, I've only seen the Milky Way a couple of times in my life? And I have always been a bit disappointed that even out in the Bush, there's enough local light pollution I couldn't see it. But it turns out, if it's a dark enough night, and I step just far enough away from the light, I can see the Milky Way-- faint, but there-- in a proper twinkling jewelery box sky.

And looking out over the stars, I sung Brighter Than Today and cried.

The lead up to this winter solstice has been... very solstice. I don't want to complain or jinx myself, but personally, while the lead up could have been worse, it could have been better too! And I was feeling every minute of sunlight lost. And... [gestures broadly at the world.]

But it was good to get out and sing. And then spend a few minutes staring at the sky.

And tomorrow, there's going to be a little more daylight. Not much. It's going to be hard to tell, but it's there