Eideard

For the people of Samoa, December 30 will be a day that never existed as the island nation makes an historic leap across the international dateline.

At midnight on Thursday December 29, Samoa’s calendar will leap straight to Saturday December 31, as it redraws the dateline to move to the western side after more than a century on the east. The country will go from being the last place in the world to see sunset to one of the first to see the sunrise.

The shift, aimed at improving trade, initially angered tourism operators, which will no longer be able to lure visitors with the sight of the final sunset. But the tourism sector quickly switched to a new offering: visitors can now celebrate two New Year’s Eves – one on Samoa and one on American Samoa, which remains on the western side. The two countries – about an hour’s flight apart – are also planning offers of double birthdays, Christmas and anniversaries.

The switch has also caused concern among some religious groups, particularly those whose Sabbath incorporates Friday – a day that, for this week only, will be eternally erased.

Some of the island’s 7000-odd Seventh Day Adventist members have said they will not recognise the change and will continue to observe the existing seven-day cycle. “God will not recognise our manmade right to drop a day from the calendar, thus changing the weekly cycle,” said a local Adventist, Noeline Cutts, who noted that Sunday-keeping Christians will henceforth “unknowingly” be celebrating Sabbath on Saturdays.

Hilarious!

The dateline change was pushed by Samoa’s colourful, outspoken and somewhat whimsical Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, who has previously made a switch to driving on the left in 2009 and introduced daylight saving with little warning in 2010. The country last shifted time zones in 1892 when an American trader convinced the island to align with California. With the opportunity to repeat the same day, the country celebrated two consecutive Fourth of Julys…

The dateline, which passes through the Pacific near the 180º meridian, is not set by an international treaty or organisation and has long been wobbly, mainly to ensure some countries are not left with territory on both sides. Samoa is currently about 20 miles from the dateline.

RTFA for more delightful tales of local politics including an apparent concern that someone will someday shift Samoa, again, and they will end up covered with snow next door to Russia.

 
NASA astronaut Dan Burbank shared a matchless view of Comet Lovejoy from the International Space Station, showing the comet’s magnificent tail from a vantage point high above the atmosphere.

“I probably saw the most amazing thing I have ever seen in space, and that’s saying an awful lot, because every day is filled with amazing things,” he told Detroit’s WDIV-TV in an interview.

Hundreds of photos, captured from an altitude of 240 miles, were assembled into the video you see here. You can see the comet rise from the horizon, shining through the green line of atmospheric airglow, and then fade away as the sunrise breaks out in brilliance. It’s a view only three people can see with their own eyes — although that little list will rise to six on Friday when three more crewmates arrive on a Russian Soyuz craft.

Breathtaking. I’m happy I’m alive in a time where at least I can watch something like this secondhand.

Click photo to enlarge.

One of the delights of living in high desert country is the frequency of beautiful sunsets and sunrises. This was this morning.

Taken while experimenting with a new pocket camera – Canon Powershot SX230HS. My old reliable Panasonic became old and unreliable. And I refuse to buy another camera from a company that inserts matching chips into camera and batteries that only allow their own overpriced batteries to be used.

Software in the Canon seems OK, so far. I’ve only been using it a day or so. I think the Leica lens in the Panny was probably better.

A morning shot looking South – after a few days and nights of rain and scattered showers. Amazing how verdant our landscape looks after a bit of precipitation. We’re up to about 4.5″ YTD. Woo hoo!

This morning’s first walk, the sun was just starting to rise behind us. As we walked west, the light caught the edges of small clouds above the Caja del Rio mesa across the valley.

What I usually call a “Walt Disney” photo – – but, still pretty nice.

The sunrise reaches La Bajada pass, running east and south of Caja del Rio on El Camino Real from Santa Fe to Mexico City.

This photo could hardly impress anyone who lived somewhere with humidity. Har.

But, our typical summertime humidity runs around 15 to 25% even during the monsoon season. We get a small amount of monsoon rain before moisture streams from the South dry out completely in the uplift of the Southern Rockies.

Last night we had what NOAA euphemistically calls a “trace” of rain. But, on my first walk along the fenceline with Rally I could see enough moisture had collected in a depression on the East-facing shoulder of the ancient volcano immediately across the valley of La Cieneguilla – to start a breath of mist rising.

I waited for the sunrise to reach the volcano and recorded the moment.

Before driving into town, this morning, for our usual weekly grocery shopping, we headed out for a dawn walk with the dogs – and spent as much time gazing at the sunrise as walking.

Click on photo for larger view

Yesterday, we reached fairly high humidity – for when it’s not snowing – here in the high desert. 57%. Down behind our back meadow in the bosque of the Santa Fe River we had a rare frost form. And out walking with the dogs, this morning, I caught that moment just before the frost turned into a bit of mist, rising and disappearing in the morning sun.