I have not figured this out yet. I was always under the impression that the solstice was the day that light starts to increase. I decided to check this out.

The day after the solstice, we got 2 seconds more of light, so my premise is actually correct, at least at my lattitude and longitude. It probably would vary.

The sun came up later for a good two weeks after the solstice. The latest sunrise was Dec. 29, not on the solstice. Sunrise stayed at 7:29 until Jan. 8th and then proceeded to get earlier, hence a gain in perceived light. This was not the darkest day tho, because, sunset had already started to occur later..

This week alone we gain 6 more minutes of time in the morning alone.

The earliest sunSET was on Dec. 6-8, at 4:22 at which time it started to back up and this week we gain almost 8 minutes at the tail end of the day. So we gained light at the end of the day and continued to lose it at the beginning of the day. Sunset today is 5:01pm.

Solar noon was before noon until Dec. 28, where it occured on noon. It is at 12:10 today.

So, actually, we did gain 2 seconds on the day after solstice, but sunrise and sunset do not correlate with solstice, they seem to move around. Solstice is the day we start to gain light, albeit slowly. 14 minutes, from the beginning of this week to the end, is substantial.

Thank you timeanddate/worldclock.com

You made my day...I mean, night, no day, no night....eh whatever....it is lighter out and I can tell! Unless that is the effect of the yellow paint (the color trend for 2010), that we painted on our walls...low VOC of course.

Alleluia, Alleluia, hum, hum, hum, (real loud now) Allllleeeeeeluuuuiaaaaa!

I feel better already!

Hunh? I'm confused...

LOL, so am I....it's my perpetual state. I think it is an adaptation to having a bad disease.....one just does not get what is going on.

Ok, so the idea is, the solstice is indeed the darkest day as far as sunlight reaching my location. On Dec. 22nd we gained 2 secs. on Dec. 21st.

The sun rises later until Dec. 29th, when it revereses and starts to rise earlier.

The sunset, however, comes the earliest on Dec. 6 thru 8th, and then starts to reverse coming later. Sooo, what we lost in the evening we gained in the morning, and then, later, what we lost in the morning, we gained at nite....

Crazy, eh?

Sometimes less is more.....sorry to get so longwinded.

I have way too much time on my hands to think.

I am going to go buy a Sawzall.... I need something to do. All this thinking is bad for me. I have the dubious distinction of cutting off my finger tip with a kite string...hmm, I wonder how well the saw will go.

i never realized that the surise still got later after the shortest day of the year for a few days. After 52 years i feel suddenly enlightened....ha.....i thought that the day got longer on both ends as im sure most people do.

I am learning never to assume anything anymore.

As long as it gets warmer,,

Thank you Joan...you made me laugh out loud..very funny. Someone once asked me if getting pregnant ever worried me and I said, "Not at all, I have no baby machine." Never occured to me to say I no longer have an oven, and yeah, at my age, buns are highly overrated!!!

I still have my baby making stuff, not that I have any use for it....I was wondering what I would do with the space it took up if it was gone. I already echo. My daughter is in labor as I write this.