Saturday, September 29, 2007

I'll Follow the Sun

This morning, I dragged myself out of bed to see the Sunrise. I capitalize Sunrise because I like to think it has something to do with the rising of the Son to the world. It turns me on, OK.
Anyway, this morning's was particularly beautiful. I live on Lake Michigan at the end of Loyola Ave so it's a blast to walk over to the lake and wait. I figured that today's Sunrise would be about 6:44 or so. Turns out it rose exactly at 6:45 am. Not a cloud in the sky, the spark of orange light ignited on the horizon and grew into a disk in less than 3 minutes. I couldn't look right at it, but I took in the colors nearby: a lot of morning blue, some horizon rose, white whisps, and a lot of gray soaring gulls, and some black speck planes. Took time for prayer, maybe thought of you, and then sipped my warm coffee as I headed back into the house.

Now here's the puzzler: I checked the Sun-Times to see the time for tomorrow's Sunrise: 6:46 am. Usually, no suprise, the sun comes up a minute later each day until December 22 when it travels back up towards our tropic. Then I looked at the times for moonrise, also another hobby. Today it will rise at 8PM. Tomorrow the moon rises at 8:44 PM. Monday it rises at 9:37 PM, Tuesday at 10:41. WAIT ... one day it rises at 8, then 44 minutes later, then 53 minutes later, then 64 minutes later ... WOAH. How come the intervals of moonrises are not uniform, or systematic? So, I sent my question in to "Ask An Astronomer" and I patiently await my answer. Enough hobby for this morning. Time to enjoy the sunny Saturday.