So with the passing of the earliest night of the year on Sunday I’m very much looking forward to the summer already. Shame there’s so much winter to come yet. I’m very much tempted to get the ND out for winter use. 
On that note my Xmas list.
No Covid
Sun
A trade deal
A six pack
Sarah from coronation street.
I think I’m going to be disappointed 
Is the Winter Solstice not on the 21st December??
…yes… a bit early me thinks…
Yep, 21st December…someone is going to be even more disappointed 
I think Sarah might be relieved. 
21st isn’t the darkest earliest it’s the 12th. 21st is the solstice.
Sarah, ahhh I can dream
I learn something new every day! 
Many thanks! 
More importantly I was hoping for a few comedy Xmas wish lists.
My wife saw mine just and I’m in the dog house
I best get the tea on 
Here in the frozen east (Colchester) sunset is at its earliest (1545) from the 8th to the 17th December but sunrise is getting later in the morning until 31st December at 0804, still at least the nights will be drawing out from the 18th!
Well you can get a good trade deal and a 6 pack in one go , coz Lidl are doing a 12 pack of St Miguel lager deal for £11 !
Dunno about Sarah from Corrie, but there’s always Marina from The Last of the summer wine 
6 pack?
I thought he meant diet, ab crunches, & exercise
I think that’s exactly what he meant, just goes to show you how my mind works 
P.S I’m ok with Cruchies, pack of 3 for £1 at my local garage.
Crunchies are good but I like chocolate hobnobs 
But they’re like Pringles or Morrisons jam Doughnuts, you cant just eat one,… or maybe I’m just a greedy git
The rate of change is slowest around the solstice and fastest around the equinoxes, so the exact date doesn’t make a lot of difference really but its interesting to learn that the earliest sunset doesn’t coincide with the latest sunrise.
Isn’t the latest sunrise not until something like 1 January?
Indeed it is. Latest sunrise is either dec 31 or jan 1. Changes as years pass.
The sun rise is sinusoidal so at the equinox and solstice rate of change is vastly different. Sun set changes by seconds per day around the 12 of July and December, but almost a quarter of an hour per day between them. Same for sun rise but use 31st of the months as they are 19 or so days out of phase with each other.
The solstice is the length of the day in seconds and a day isn’t always 24 hours long. Some days are ten minutes longer or shorter.
Interestingly, or not interestingly?, the length of a second was recently changed to make a leap second less regular.
I think that people just use the solstice as the sunrise and sunset days too, after all it’s close enough and isn’t important enough to most people to matter. I only know because I collect watches and it gets discussed on those forums here and there.
Anyway, I just finished a packet of chocolate hobnobs. God I’ve got fat this year. Must run more in 2021.
Yesterday I picked up 400g of chocolate peanuts to last the holidays. I finished the lot on my drive home. That’s bad isn’t it?!
