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Winter comes Saturday

Winter solstice

Winter
You don’t have to look up or at the horizon. Just step outside and you know the Winter Solstice starts this weekend.

In Chicago the Winter Solstice also called hibernal solstice begins Dec. 21, 2024 at 3:20 a.m. CT. which will later in the day translate into 6 hours, 6 minutes shorter than the summer (June) solstice according to Time and Date.

This is when the North Pole is at its maximum tilt from the sun in the Northern Hemisphere. Thus it will be the shortest amount of daylight and the longest night.

That tilt means about 7 hours and 40 minutes of daylight according to Space.

The Farmers Almanac describes solstice: It comes from the Latin words sol (Sun) and sistere (to stand still) because, during the solstice, the angle between the Sun’s rays and the plane of the Earth’s equator (called declination) appears to stand still.

That’s good to know at a dinner party so Happy Holidays.

Catch falling stars but note full moon

Look up,the Geminids are here. They will be around until Dec. 24 in 2024, but they peak December 13-15.

Flying across the sky at about 120 to 150 per hour, the Geminids are among the best meteor showers of the year.

Instead of seeming to come from (known as the radiant) a comet, the Geminids are from the 3200 Phaethon which is an asteroid. That’s the good news.

Not so good is that December’s full moon, called the Cold Moon, will be lighting up the sky at the same time. It looks full Dec. 13-16 but reaches full illumination the morning of Dec. 15.

The problem is the full moon really will lite up not just the sky but your landscape making it hard to catch the Geminids. EarthSky has a couple of suggestions to counter the full moon including looking for a spot that is in shadow.

The moon’s”Cold” name reflects the weather at this time of year. However, it is also called the Long Night Moon because of its proximity to the winter solstice, Dec. 21. You’ll probably notice the morning starts darker now and night comes quickly.

For more info go to EarthSky, Time and Date and Old Farmer’s Almanac

Holiday lights and festivals

Light up the night at Lightscape

(Photo courtesy of Chicago Botanic Garden Lightscape)

It may seem almost overwhelming when considering all the festivals in the Chicago area this Thanksgiving holiday weekend so here are just a few to consider.

Magnificent Mile Light Festival

The main feature is The Parade led by Disney’s ® Mickie and Minnie Mouse that starts at 5:30 p.m. but you might want to go earlier for events along North Michigan Avenue known as the Magnificent Mile. The Parade starts at the north end at Oak Street and ends south at the Chicago River.

However, the festivities go from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the south end of the Mag Mile in Pioneer Court next to the former Chicago Tribune building. They include photos with Santa, cheesecake decorating with Eli’s Cheesecake, free coffee samples and MUNCHKINS® Donut Hole Treats and DJ’s on stage.

Look for a good parade viewing spot early to see the floats, celebrities and bands and watch Mickey and Minnie turn on the million lights as they proceed up the Avenue. Overhead will be Muppet balloons, including a 60-foot-tall Santa Kermit The Frog .

Chicago Botanic Garden Lightscape

Stroll on a set path around fields, plots and waterways accompanied by music and refigured by colored lights. As good as it was last year and the year before, the 2024 Lightscape is almost beyond imagination.

Stop along the way for a snack or go into the Education Building half way around to rest and eat because more amazing patches of illumination still lie ahead.

Lightscape is Nov 15 through Jan 5, 2025. The Garden is at 1000 Lake Cook Rd, Glencoe, IL 60022. For tickets and more information visit Lightscape or call (847) 835-6801.

City of Chicago Tree Lighting

Go over to Millennium Park east of Michigan Avenue just south of Washington Street for Chicago’s annual Christmas Tree lighting November 22. The tree will be up through January 8, 2025 but on this Friday, there will be entertainment at 5 p.m. and a ceremony begins at 6 p.m. followed by fireworks. Enter through the south Promenade on Monroe Street or Randolph Street.

Take public transportation because Street closures begin at 10:00 a.m. on November 22 for Washington from Wabash to Michigan, Madison from Wabash to Michigan,Michigan Avenue from Randolph to Monroe and Garland Court from Randolph to Monroe. They end at midnight.

Jodie Jacobs

November moon is the Beaver

If you have had a clear night sky this past weekend and have been looking up you may have noticed that the moon before it was even full has been looming large. The November full moon is the last of the season’s four Supermoons.

Likely you remember that Supermoons look larger because they are closer to Earth than the other full moons. That would be within the 90 percent range of its closest orbital point.

To see it at its full illumination, check it out at 4:29 p.m. EDT on Nov. 15, (2024). Of course, as usual, it will appear full the day before and the day after.

The November full moon is known as the “Beaver Moon” because that animal is beginning to move into the lodge it has constructed where it has stored food for the winter.

Other November full moon names refer to other animal activities and the weather in Native American lore such as the Digging and Deer Rutting Moon or the Frost or Freezing Moon.

For more information visit Space and Old Farmer’s Almanac.

Astronomical cross quarter days

Diagram of Earth's orbit with equinoxes, solstices, and cross-quarter days marked.

Illustration by NASA

Halloween, Oct. 31, falls between the September equinox and the December solstice and so is a cross quarter day, equinox being when the sun sets due west and solstice when the sun sets at its most northern or southern point on the horizon.

There are four of these cross quarter days, each celebrated as a holiday. They are Groundhog Day February 2, May Day May 1, Lammas Aug. 1 and Halloween Oct. 31 (which astronomical calendars say the cross quarter actually is November 7.

According to one of the Celtic calendars, Groundhog Day is also Candlemas and the beginning of Spring. But one of the Celtic calendars divides the year into three parts with Midsummer Day and Christmas being the other two parts instead of the four quarter days.

Also, check out this lecture from Ohio State University: Telling Time. It is very informative. If you scroll down a bit you find the cross quarter days and there dates and names according to different calendars and groups.

For more info go to EarthSky, Space and Telescope and Farmer’s Almanac.

A cerebral journey of friendship through time and space

Highly Recommend

Letter writing is more akin to internal dialogue and can have a kind of naked intimacy that is difficult to achieve in the flesh.

As many of us have experienced in this age of email and texts, people will often commit to the written word thoughts and ideas they might never have said in person.

In Remy Bumppo Theatre Company’s Dear Elizabeth at Theater Wit, poets Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell’s letters are echoes of a long-distance relationship that sparked a 30-year correspondence and ultimately evolved into a profound friendship.

Born in Massachusetts, Bishop and Lowell were both Pulitzer Prize winners for poetry. As a result of these commonalities, their sizeable collection of intelligent and witty missives are riddled with references to New England as well as personal news and collegial musings related to their work and travels.

As professional wordsmiths who had already achieved some celebrity it is possible that they were crafting their memoranda for posterity, especially since they each apparently saved correspondence that might have been considered ephemeral by others.

However, many people of every rank have thankfully saved letters, thus preserving small snapshots of life that much like photos allow us to live and relive moments in time.

In the case of Dear Elizabeth we are the beneficiaries, able to enjoy this voyeuristic journey of the mind through time and space that Bishop and Lowell began.

Leah Karpel as the initially guarded, sometimes asthmatic Elizabeth, and Christopher Sheard as the gregarious, bipolar Robert, are perfect in their roles breathing life into words that were never intended to be vocalized.

There are no particularly great moments of tension or drama in Dear Elizabeth. Sure, there are emotional references to births, deaths and romances but overall, this theatrical duet for two voices by Sarah Ruhl is more like a relaxing soak in a warm bath.

Cerebral is an appropriate term for this experience as the “conversation” between the two epistolists is like one brain talking to another. Words are carefully chosen and though the language is informal, there is a clarity of thought that might otherwise get muddled through the process of extemporaneous discourse. This becomes evident during the infrequent face-to-face meetings between the two that apparently and somewhat ironically were fraught with awkward moments and miscommunications.

There is a precision to this production that comes off as simply natural but is in fact an indication of the firm hand of director and Remy Bumppo creative producer Christina Casano. It is clear that someone with a strong overall vision set the tempo of the performances, as well as the audio and visual elements. It takes great effort to look effortless.

The effective scenic design by Catalina Niño features a number of projections that enhanced the reference to specific places but had an indistinct dreamlike quality that one might experience when trying to imagine a place you have not seen for yourself or place from memory.

The bare set was interestingly neutral, reminiscent of a sandy beach, literally providing a perfect canvas for the projections. From a technical point-of-view there were a number of costume elements, props and pieces that were cleverly built into or stashed away within the set making them easily accessible without undue clutter or fuss.

This is a smart biographical drama providing us a glimpse into the lives and thoughts of two interesting, actual people, who through their own words demonstrate to us the value of friendship and human connectedness.

Dear Elizabeth by Remy Bumppo Productions is at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago through November 17, 2024. Runtime is about 100 minutes with one 10 minute intermission. For information visit RemyBumppo.org.

Reviewer Reno Lovison

For more reviews and theatre info visit Theatre In Chicago – Your Source For Plays In Chicago – Chicago Plays

October Supermoon

October’s full moon, which is at full illumination on the 17th of the month, will be the year’s best Supermoon. It will look full Oct 16-19 and rise about the same time each night.

It will also appear brighter than past moons and its longer time lighting the sky has made it a good time for hunting but also a time to finish harvesting. BTW the October Moon is called the Hunter’s Moon. The September moon, a lunar cycle earlier was called the Harvest Moon.

“Super” as in Supermoon, is for what looks like its larger than usual size. That illusion is when its orbit, which is oval, brings it closer to Earth. That point is called its perigee. The Moon’s farthest point is its apogee

“Closer,” means 222,058 miles from Earth (357,367 kilometers). In comparison, September’s Supermoon on Sept. 18 was large but its perigee was 222,132 miles (357,486) from Earth.

Watch for the Hunter’s Moon on the horizon when the sun goes down but its peak illumination came already at 6:26 a.m., CT, Thursday.

For more information visit Time and Date and Old Farmer’s Almanac

October Meteor Showers

Look up tonight!

The Draconid meteor shower is very short. Instead of a month or even a couple of weeks, the Draconids are basically a one-night stand. Watch for them right after sunset in the northwestern sky, Oct. 7, 2024. (Though you might also catch them Oct. 8.)

Their radiation point is in the constellation Draco from stars Eltanin and Rastaban, known as the Dragon’s Eyes.

Typically, there will be about 10 meteors an hour, but occasionally dozens have been known to shoot out.

Find more information at EarthSky.

Then, watch overhead later in the month as the Orionids take over the sky, peaking with about 20 meteors an hour Oct. 20-21. Coming from 1P/Halley, these are way better known than the Draconids. They are actually overhead now and go to mid-November but peak about the fourth week of October.

Unlike the early in the evening Draconids, these Halley meteors appear late night (after midnight) and early, early morning. They are the second outpouring from Comet Halley. The first of that comet’s debris came in May and are known as the Eta Aquarids.

The Orionids are so called because the meteors seem to radiate from the constellation Orion. Also, unlike the Draconids’ moon phase, the Orionids will be competing with a moonlit sky.

Find more information at: Orionid meteor shower 2024: When, where & how to see it | Space and Orionids Meteor Shower 2024 (timeanddate.com)

October 2024 Meteor Showers (youtube.com)

A lunar eclipse and a minimoon in September

September’s sky may tease viewers.

Calling it a temporary, mini-moon, Earthsky says a tiny, 33 ft asteroid, will leave the Sun’s orbit to orbit around Earth for about two months until the Sun’s gravity pulls it back.

That’s the fun look-up news. The caveat is that this mini-moon asteroid will be so dim that earthlings will have a hard time seeing it.

On to September’s Full Moon which will be at full illumination at 10:34 p.m. ET on Sept.17. It will also appear full on Sept. 16-18 and rise at the same time each of those nights.

Called the “Harvest Moon,” the good news is that it is a Supermoon meaning it will appear larger than usual though it really isn’t. The apparent size is related to how close the Moon is to Earth.

The somewhat bad news is that the Earth, Moon and Sun will be in a line. Space, is saying to expect a partial eclipse because the Moon will partially be in Earth’s shadow. Go to Space Full Moon Eclipse to watch it.

Earth/Sky says it will be a penumbral eclipse. Also check out their watch party at Earth/Sky.

According to the Farmer’s Almanac, the September Moon can also be called the “Corn Moon” depending on whether it comes closer to the Fall Equinox Sept. 22-23, than the October Moon.

Jodie Jacobs

Halloween comes early to Highwood and Chicago Botanic Garden

(Photo courtesy of Highwood Chamber of Commerce)

More than 14 years ago, Highwood, a slightly over a square mile northeastern suburb of Chicago, decided to challenge Keene, NH’s record of most jack-o-lanterns displayed (30,581). BTW, a jack-o-lantern is a carved pumpkin.

I haven’t heard of any time since then that Highwood hit the record, but the town, actually a city, is continuing to fight for that achievement with its 14th annual “Great Highwood Pumpkin Fest,” Oct. 4-6.

Despite all the skeletons around town that will be seen in October, the fest is a very family friendly event that includes “all-you-can-carve pumpkin stations” and three days of live music from three stages. Plus, there will be children’s and pet costume contests and pumpkin pie eating contests, food and artisan vendors, a carnival and hayrides.

What to expect: Highwood will be turned into Pumpkin Town USA beginning Seto 28 and will cover the grounds at Highwood City Hall (17 Highwood Avenue), Everts Park (111 North Avenue), Painters Park (420-424 Sheridan Road) and the Highwood Metra Station Parking Lot where the carnival will be on site.

Also, expect street closures on Green Bay Road from North Avenue to Highwood Avenue, and on Highwood Avenue from Green Bay Road to Waukegan Avenue where vendors and the Great Pumpkin Walls will be.

Music stages will be at North Avenue and Green Bay, the Bandshell in Everts Park and the School of Rock Stage in Painters Park. Pumpkin Town USA will be at the center of Everts Park.

In addition, expect many camera stops as visitors shoot skeleton scenes from Superhero movies and skeletons just posing.

“The Great Highwood Pumpkin Fest put Highwood on the map and it’s the perfect kick-off to Fall after our summer series of events,” says Eric Falberg, President of Celebrate Highwood. “This year, we are proving to the world why Illinois is The Great Pumpkin (pie) State by attempting to break the Guinness World Records for the longest line of (pumpkin) pies,” says Falberg.

Night of 1,000 Jack-o'-Lanterns

(Photo courtesy of the Chicago Botanic Garden)

Called the “Night of 1,000 Jack-o’-Lanterns” the Chicago Botanic Garden will hold this popular (sold out last year) event on Oct 16-20 and Oct. 23-27, 2024 from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m.

What to expect: Scary or funny or just plain creative, pumpkins will be gazing back as visitors gaze at their faces carved as album covers, eerie cartoons and Día de los Muertos tributes.

Also look for pumpkin-carving demos, entertainers in costume, glow-in-the-dark tattoos for kids and light food and drinks available to purchase.

Jodie Jacobs