Just a quick note to point out that the Winter Solstice in the Northern hemisphere happens today, Sunday 21st December 2025, at 15.03 UT (GMT).
In Dublin, sunrise yesterday (20th December) was at 8.37 am and sunset at 4.07 pm, while today the sunrise was at 8.38 am and sunset at 4.08 pm. Both sunrise and sunset happen later tomorrow than today, so the Solstice marks neither the latest sunrise nor the earliest sunset. We have to wait until January for the latest sunrise (8.40am) and the earliest sunset (4.06pm) actually happened over a week ago. The interval between the two events will, however, be about 2 seconds longer tomorrow than today; and yesterday the gap was about 4 seconds longer than today. Taking a day to be the interval between sunrise and sunset, today is the shortest.
For a full explanation of this, see this older Winter Solstice post.
P.S. In the Southern Hemisphere this is of course the summer solstice. In Australia it was marked by the ritual of a victory in the Ashes against England.
In the Dark 