The balance is weighted to April
Today. These are Ecliptic Winds
From the Tilt of the Earth.
I can feel them here,
And watch them on my Scales,
And on the Needle of my Gnomon,
riding the Solar Storm.

Daybook, January 28

EPHEMERIS FOR THE TRANSITION TO LATE WINTER
The Ninth Week Of The Natural Year
    The Skunk Cabbage Moon waxes into its second quarter on January 23 at 5:53 a.m. Rising near midday and setting after midnight, this moon lies overhead after dark, pulling the skunk cabbage up from the muck.

    Eight weeks after the beginning of the natural year, the Earth has tilted on its axis so far back toward spring that signs of the coming change overwhelm the winter, creating transition in spite of the cold.   

    January 25 is the average date for cardinals to begin their spring mating songs a half an hour before sunrise. By the end of the week, the first major waves of robins and bluebirds cross the Ohio River. And resident crows, sparrows, starlings, titmice, yellow-bellied woodpeckers, pileated woodpeckers, and blue jays become more active, contributing to a substantial increase in the volume of morning birdsong.

    Also on January 25, the sun reaches a declination of 19 degrees, its mid-November noontime position more than 20 percent of the way to equinox. Even though the weather remains wintry, the sun sets almost half an hour later than it did on New Year’s Eve, and sunrise is ten minutes earlier. The day's length along the 40th Parallel gains about ten minutes in the course of this week; on January 27, it reaches ten hours for the first time since November 14.  

     On January 28, with Late Winter only two days old, the average temperature almost everywhere in the country rises one degree. This is the first time that the averages have risen since their stagnation between July 17 and July 27.

A SIMPLE STAR CLOCK

    If you can find the Big Dipper at bedtime this month, you can keep time through the whole year by watching that constellation move around Polaris, the North Star.

    These cold nights of January, the Dipper lies close to the northeastern horizon, its pointers, the outside stars of its “cup,” point due west, and mark the center of winter. As the earth turns towards spring, the Big Dipper moves out towards the center of the heavens, and its pointers are aligned north-south just when daffodils bloom and the trees start to blossom in April.

   Then when the Dipper has moved to the western side of Polaris, and its pointers are lying east-west, summer will have reached its zenith. When the Dipper lies along the northern horizon, pointing due south up at the North Star, the leaves will all be falling from the maples. And as the Dipper comes around east again, it brings winter with it once more.

    Even though modern society offers its members many different ways to measure the passage of events, it can sometimes be reassuring to know that the source of all those measuring devices is simply the sky. Anyone who cares to look, can see the foundation of time itself.