Hi John-- As I was saying in my reply to Anne, I'd trade places with residents of Australia or Europe, in a New York minute.
Yes, by the way, I agree with the Australian designation for when summer and winter begin: Here, it's obvious that summer arrives with June, especially in the parts of the country which have distinct seasons. So I agree with the designation in Australia that says that summer arrives with December, and winter arrives with June. Here, for some reason, our astronomers have decided to define "summer" as beginning at the summer solstice, and to define "winter" as beginning at the winter solstice. There's not really any justification for those arbitrary designations. Once I telephoned an astronomer who always announces the beginning of the seasons, defined in his silly way, on the radio. I explained to him that he should just speak of "astronomical quarters", because his "seasons" have nothing to do with the actual seasons, as we all perceive them. He finally defended himself by saying that he didn't invent those astronomical "season"-designations. But he was still proclaiming them on the radio when the next solstice or equinox arrived. Everyone here (except the astronomers and the broadcasters who quote them) knows that, by the time June 21 arrives, it has already been summer for a long time. Michael Ossipoff 26N, 80W On Wed, Jun 10, 2015 at 7:30 PM, John Pickard <john.pick...@bigpond.com> wrote: > > Hi Michael, > > You are making life far too complicated by worrying about which definition > of sunrise to use for your assignation. > > Here in Australia, if you are invited by a young (or older) woman to view > a sunrise from a beach, the only questions to be asked are “how much food > and beer / wine do I bring?” and “are you bringing the picnic rug?” > > But we are now in grip of winter in Sydney, and only the truly brave (or > those well fortified by alcohol anti-freeze) would venture to the beach in > the vain hope of glimpsing the dawn through the clouds. > > I’m not too sure about using “aurora” in the context of dawn. I spent many > hours lying in the snow in winter (~ –30C) in Antarctica looking up at > auroras, and it’s something I’ve never forgotten. Whether rippling sheets > of light, or shooting beams, they were pure magic. Far, far better than any > sunrise. > > Cheers, John > > John Pickard > john.pick...@bigpond.com > > > --------------------------------------------------- > https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial > > >
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