Another milestone passed?

[cee-dee]

The Winter solstice was just after 10am so now we can look forward to each day being lighter for longer 

I remember as a kid playing out in the snow with the other kids 'till "late" in January because it seemed so light. When I finally went home and got told off for being late in for tea and looked out again it didn't look "as light" as when we were out there. Happy days?

[m25jet]

In addition to it being the Winter Solstice today it also co-incides with the Great Conjunction, when Jupiter and Saturn can be seen very close together in the night sky, visible as a very bright star.  Unless it's obscured by cloud it ought to be visible to the naked eye, although you may be able to get a better view of it if you've got a decent pair of binoculars.  However, the planets will be setting early this evening, so try looking to the south-west at 5:00pm to see if you can spot it.  The last time Jupiter and Saturn were aligned this closely was back in 1623.

It's good that it's the Winter Solstice today.  From today onwards we'll start getting threee minutes of daylight back with every passing day, so by the end of January we should have gained another two hours' worth of daylight.