Winter Solstice today (21 December)

[Woodlander]

The late father of one of my oldest friends was a far north of Scotland GP and grew up on a croft near Helmsdale in Sutherland. He once told me that as a boy (pre-war) he had one of the old fixed aperture / shutter speed 120 roll-film 'Box Brownie' cameras, and that on a bright sunny mid winter's day you had at most two hours to take a photo outdoors, ie roughly an hour either side of midday. If it was a dull day, forget it!

Our eyes and brain compensate a great deal for changing light levels, so when it seems dull at midday, it really is. (When I got into photography with my first 35mm SLR camera back in the days of using a light meter then setting the camera to suit, I was often really surprised how what seemed like 'normal' light to me was actually very low-light on the meter and needed a couple of extra 'stops' on the lens or shutter speed settings.)

That’s interesting, Laurie, I was shooting the other day, with by big pm11, on what I thought was a bright clear day, it was almost unusable on anything above 30x, when usually in the summer months, it’s good all the way up to 50x.

 

[Len the dog]

Indeed, Greylag numbers are increasing year on year and can be shot on croftland at any time, no close season. I mind when they were mainly winter visitors, now it’s hard to walk across the hills without coming across a nest.
No real ground predators, except possibly otter. All mammals were introduced, polecat ferrets and stoat, thankfully no mink, in an attempt to control a huge rabbit population and hedgehog to eat garden slugs, all now impacting ground nesting birds. No foxes, though occasionally a joker will bring a roadkill fox and leave it on a busy roadside, once I believe this was done with an arctic fox.
As for the ravens and hoodies, with sparrowhawks colonising quickly and regular sightings of sea eagles during the summer months, their dominance may be challenged.

Do you have deer or badgers on Shetland?

 

[Sharpie]

At this time of year, when the sun at mid day is only a few degrees above the horizon, it has to penetrate a lot of atmosphere horizontally. Here on the South coast it maxes at about 16 degrees above the horizon. So at best falls sideways on. Fortunately we generally have clear skies, untroubled by the murk and filth of big cities, why the Royal Greenwich Observatory was moved out of Greenwich to Herstmonceux just down the road from me. Though that is nowadays just a visitors attraction (but a good one). Their real work is nowadays done in the Canary islands, Las Palmas.

Just checked for Lerwick, Shetland. 7 degrees at mid day, today. Not very bright, even in perfectly clear skies.

But if you love dark skies and all their celestial wonder, like me, it is the perfect time of year.

Not exactly "sunny f16" exposure for box brownies.

Recommendation: keep taking high strength vitamin D tablets.

 

[User00053]

I know the boat fishing is very good if you can get out,but anyone know what the shore fishing is like?

 

[Freeforester]

Haven't looked at that vid, (not enough hours in the day ...) But this year today, 21 Dec. is indeed the Winter Solstice in the Northern hemisphere. Irrespective of latitude.

The exact date varies according to the Gregorian calendar, 365 days/year, but 366 every fourth (leap) year. Rather than the actual 365.242199 days or so that it takes the Earth to orbit the sun.

December Solstice: the Shortest (and Longest) Day

The December solstice can be on December 20, 21, 22, or 23.

December 21 or 22 solstices happen more often than December 20 and 23 solstices. The last December 23 solstice was in 1903 and the next one is in 2303. A December 20 solstice is also rare, with the next one in the year 2080.

As to the timing of sunrise and sunset, that is subject to the movements of the Equation of Time, largely because the Earth's orbit is slightly elliptical rather than circular: Equation of Time

FWIW, Today at my location I have 7hrs 56'12'' of daylight. Yesterday was six seconds longer. Tomorrow will be one second longer. June 21 (Summer Solstice) will be the longest day. 16 hrs 31 minutes 13 seconds.

FWIW 6 June 1944 was not actually "the longest day". But near enough.

Sorry to learn you’re stuck in the time-poor column, here’s a précis of the thesis she’s trying to get over, and what it means in terms of the trend toward global warming or more commonly held ‘beliefs’ surrounding climate change; being incurious can be injurious, though a state of bliss is definitely preferable for many too:

 

[User00036]

Interesting date that the Christians stole & turned into Christmas. Stonehenge was originally built to celebrate the Midwinter, Avesbury the Midsummer.