THE EARLIEST SUNRISE

Sunday 17th June 2012

Holbeach

52°43'N 000°00'W

Rise 04:35 BST

Set 21:27 BST

Rise 03:04 BST

Set 19:36 BST

Phase Morning Crescent

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http://www.sunrisesunsetmap.com/

Major Cities

I wrote about this in connection with the shortest day, and now  I find myself here. Not the longest day, but the EARLIEST SUNRISE. From now until late December I get extra time in bed every day.

To celebrate, I thought I'd put together some basic information on sunrises (mostly nabbed from Wikipedia)

 

The earliest sunrise does not occur on the shortest day

This is all to do with atmospheric refraction. Basically, light bends over the horizon. The average amount of refraction is 34 arcminutes! Bet you didn't know that.

It's also because Earth has an eccentric orbit and an axial tilt. (Wobbly circles)

 

What is the definition of sunrise?

Sunrise time is the moment at which the upper limb of the sun appears tangent with the horizon.

I think that means the moment the first bit of the sun appears.(So, not when the centre of the sun or the whole sun has crossed the horizon)

 

The Sun does not actually go round the Earth.

If you thought this was the case then this is a stunning piece of information.

A geezer called Nicolaus Copernicus came up with this idea way back in the 16th century.Of course, it is the rotation of the Earth that causes the sun to rise, cross the sky and set again.

This may sound simple enough, but it's amazing to stand in the open fenland landscape, watch the sun rise and actually concentrate on the fact that the sun is staying still. Just for a few minutes you can actually get a sense of the earth spinning (though perhaps not as much as after I've tried some of my home-made cider!)

 

Why does sunrise occur at different times every day?

Again, this is all to do with the tilt and rotation of the earth and it's elliptical orbit around the sun. (Wobbly circles again) I guess if everything were perfect circles (or spheres) on the right angle, then we would get the same 12 hours of sunlight every day all year.

 

Why does the sun change colour?

Rayleigh scattering of course!

Pure sunlight is white in color, containing a spectrum of colors from violet to red. When sunlight interacts with atmospheric particles the light is scattered. Violet, blue and green are scattered more than orange and red. The sun appears yellow because the violets, blues and greens have been scattered into the sky. This is also why the sky appears increasingly blue further away from the sun.

This effect is exaggerated during sunrise and sunset, as the light is travelling further through the atmosphere. Hence oranges and reds.

 

Then there's Mie scattering.

This is caused by larger particles in the atmosphere, such as volcanic ash and cloud droplets. So the already reddened sunlight is scattered further to light up the horizon orange and red.

 

So, Mie scattering is responsible for the light scattered by clouds, and also for the daytime halo of white light around the Sun. Without this, the sky along the horizon has only a dull-reddish appearance, while the rest of the sky remains mostly blue and sometimes green.

 

Why are sunsets more dramatic that sunrises?

Simply because the evening air typically contains more large particles, such as clouds and smog, than morning air. (Having said that, too much cloud is obviously not great for spectacular skies, as witnessed in about half of my sunrise photos.)

 

 

So, I urge you, once in a while make the effort to see the sun rise. If you really concentrate on the scale of what is happening it'll teach you a lot about yourself.

 

27th May - It had to happen sometime!

Well, it had to happen one day.

I turned off the 4.30 alarm

and woke up at 5.30!!!

Sunrise missed.

I could use this as an excuse to stop getting up so early, but it's about more than that. I do sometimes go back to bed after letting the chickens out and taking the sunrise photo, and when the sky is just plain grey I do wonder about the merits of dragging myself out of bed so early. I even considered not taking a photo every day, but looking out of the window and going back to bed if it was overcast. But that would just end up being an excuse.
But there are many days, be it gloriously clear, crisp, windy or rainy, when I stay outside and achieve a lot before breakfast. And when the light is crisp or dramatic those first couple of hours of the day are a very special time.
So I will continue. I won't promise never to miss another one this year and, if I do, it won't seem quite so important now. But I've only got less than four weeks to go before it starts getting easier.
As the alarm moves back a few minutes every day, a 4.30 rise will seem like a luxury!

As for the rest of the day, more mowing and a fast developing tan (not the healthy trend these days). Then a very welcome visit from an old friend from London.

Some of the greenhouse seedlings needed an emergency water this morning. I can't believe how quickly they can dry up. I think that most will be OK, though I may have lost a couple of trays.

As it is, many of the seedlings are flourishing now, and they need to be out in the soil, not crammed and confined in shallow seedtrays. The veg are all in hand, but the flower borders have had to keep slipping to the bottom of the list. So this evening I decided to begin deturfing one flower border, where all the young plants can go for now, until I have time to develop this side of the garden later in the summer.

I was surprised to find yet another different type of soil under the lawn - almost black soil, no significant clay content. How I wish all the land were like this.

April's Best Sunrises

Not too often did I see the sun break the horizon during April.

Many was the time that my early morning awakening was rewarded

with a featureless grey sky, not to mention rain and wind.

Do let me know which is your favourite.

Not much of a sunrise,
but just noticed how the cloud formation shadows the form of the tree.

Geronimo!

Tuesday 31st January

Hardly a stunner to celebrate a month of sunrises.

Thirty one down, three hundred and thirty five to go.

I have now seen every sunrise in January 2012, though the sun did not make an appearance every day. I have come to realise that the beauty of the sunrise lies not in the sun itself but in the light and sky effects which it produces. The best are when the rays and radiance of the rising sun bounce around in the clouds, though some clear sky is needed for this to happen. Often the most dramatic photo or view is obtained not at sunrise itself, but as the sun pokes its head above the layer of cloud which so often sits on the horizon. (Or is it just that you are looking through all the thick, moist air which is just above the ground?) As the year progresses, I have decided to try to learn more about the sun and the factors which change its appearance and make the sky turn such an amazing range of colours.

Geronimo!

Time for a proper introduction to Geronimo, aka Gerry. He is very vocal and is often heard to emit a distinct war cry, hence the name. Gerry was acquired from a local farm along with his two half-brothers. They were supposed to be feral and we expected hissing and flying claws. What we got was three extremely cute kittens, but still extremely good hunters. Unfortunately we have since lost the other two on the road, victims of their own sense of adventure. This remains a cause of great sadness to Sue and myself. So Gerry is pampered!

Gerry, a vital tool in our anti-rodent toolkit!

As a kitten, Gerry did once slash my fingers with a pawful of razorblades which went extremely deep. However, it was only a panic reaction when I surprised him one day. He had taken to catching rabbits by the time he was six months old, eating the whole carcass from the head down. He is a prolific catcher of voles - Short-tailed Field Voles which are not supposed to be so common. He has been known to catch up to seven in a day - obviously not so rare round here, as he is still catching them, even in the deep midwinter. At the right time of year he is partial to a wide selection of birds too, though he can only catch the young and unfit. I would like to control what he catches and what he doesn't, but he was brought onto the farm to hunt and that's what he does. Amazingly, he has even brought two dead weasels to the door. It is not great that he has taken another skilled hunter, but populations in nature have a habit of finding a balance and replacing the lost very quickly.

Gerry's other function is as a last stage in our recycling machine. Very little goes to landfill from our house. Most importantly, we are not great consumers of packaged goods. Secondly, we re-use and recycle everything we can. Anything that can goes to the compost and any vegetable matter from the garden goes there too, or to the pigs. In the olden days, kitchen waste would have gone to the pigs too, but of course that is not permitted today and would never be allowed to happen on a responsible smallholding. Gerry's role is to demolish any meat waste. As a kitten, he did this admirably. However, as he has advanced to the grand old age of nearly one and a half, he has slowly spurned every form of meat going. He no longer likes chicken, fish, pork, lamb or beef. Not even eggs.

Just a thought, but why don't they make mouse and vole flavoured cat food?

2012 - A Resolution is a Resolution.



I intend to see every sunrise this year.



Sunrises and the weather.

Well, sunrise is easy to capture at the moment although under normal circumstances I might have laid in bed an extra hour or so on a couple of days. Then that's the whole point of this resolution. I want to live more closely to nature's patterns. If that means going to bed early to wake up early, then so be it.

Forgive my attempts at sunrise pics. I'm sure I'll have learned a bit by number 366!

In fact, a few times this week I've been laying awake listening to the howling and roaring of the wind. We've escaped lightly compared to some, but a steady 60km wind overnight in The Fens is still quite awe inspiring.

On the smallholding

A continuation of December's unseasonably warm and dry weather made for excellent digging. The brassica beds are almost ready for manuring and we even had time to create some border beds and plant some cheap bulbs - in theory it's too late to plant them, but we'll see. The bed was a delight to dig as it followed a mole run - these rarely seen creatures are the bane of the obsessive green lawn brigade, but I love them. If they get somewhere I don't want them, I'm assured a few elder twigs inserted into their run will gently move them elsewhere.

I got the shallots in too - good healthy bulbs saved from last year's crop. Some garlic has been saved as well, bulbs I uncovered beginning to shoot up as I was digging. Hopefully some netting will keep the chickens off them for a while. The girls (and boy) still have free roam over the whole garden - they are doing a sterling job scrattling around devouring all those nasty insects lurking in the soil. Not a good time to be a worm (not that they're bad atall), though there are plenty of them. It won't be long until the chooks get banished from the veg garden though. Most of them have come through moult and have beautiful plumage now, but their wings will need clipping soon as at least 4 of them have realised they can fly out of their luxurious compound.

Other jobs this week have revolved around trying to anticipate the gales. Last week the water butt was found detached from the wall and spread in pieces over the drive and the chimney lost another lump of render. This week it was the turn of the greenhouse to lose another couple of panels. I've now tightened every bolt, sealed all vulnerable joins with super strong gaffer tape, and was spurred into action to move some laurels to act as a wind break. It was also a reminder to clear the greenhouse out in preparation for a good clean in preparation for early sowings. The straw bales which worked so well for growing tomatoes last year were harbouring one of the many short-tailed field voles which Gerry is obsessed with catching. There seem to be plenty of them about.

Harvesting continues. I've never grown leeks before and, although they went in late, I have a reasonable crop. So when I retrieved some yellow label lamb chops from the freezer (hoping to produce our own this year to save on mowing the paddock) the trusty old Good Housekeeping Cookery Book offered me the delicacy of Lamb Chops with Leeks and Lentils. There is still nothing better than pulling your own produce from the ground and eating it that same day - it is hard to believe the intensity and subtlety of the flavours which are completely lost in shop bought veg. Anyway, if you have that recipe, try it. It was scrummy.

Birds

It's been a quiet time for birds a the moment, although the weather has not been conducive to seeing them. A huge female sparrowhawk has appeared on the scene this week, causing consternation at the feeders. The finch flocks seem to have dispersed back into the fields, although chaffinches and goldfinches are always around in good numbers. The swan flock at Coy Bridge is still in the region of 30 Mutes, but the 62 Whoopers that joined them a month or so ago have all moved on. Maybe they'll come back later in the winter. Likewise, no show from the hen harriers yet this year. Maybe it was the exceptional cold last year which drove them inland from the coastal marshes. Meadow Pipit numbers always swell at this time of year.The regular five birds seem to attract in other parties. One day there were 22 in the flock. A couple of flyover rooks this week are surprisingly quite an unusual sight.

Other stuff

A knock at the door on Wednesday informed me that one of the cows from the Settlement Field was again on the road. It was funny to watch the lorries poodling along following a rather bemused and stubborn Freesian cow.