We are coming to the time of the latest sunset, which makes the day seem the longest. It happens on June 27 for people at 40° north, a day or more earlier for higher latitudes.
This is one of the topics that come around every year – as do others about Earth’s relations with the Sun, such as the equinoxes and solstices, the definitions of the seasons, the equation of time, the changing of clocks.
So I have started to make a web page: “Sun, Earth, Seasons” , inspired by my own spread on “Sun, Earth, and Seasons” in the last Astronomical Calendar (for 2016). So far, it just consists of all I have to say about latest and earliest sunrise and sunset. The last paragraph answers the question “Why do earliest sunrise and latest sunset not coincide with the longest day?”
***
“I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end” – James Taylor. “Oh don’t the days seem limp and long when all goes right and nothing wrong!” – Patience Strong, sentimental poet of the last century. No, they don’t. Give me such a day.
A day in any season must seem horribly long if you’re a soldier in a battle.
The road through Old Isleworth was once part of a main route across the country, from London to the west.
Near the middle of what is now Syon Park, there is a small rose garden, and a sign standing in it informs the public about the Battle of Brentford, which began here on Saturday 12 November in 1642.
The civil war had broken out in August, between the supporters of the “divine right” of King Charles I, and the parliament (five of whose members he had arrested). In contrast with the dandy royalist “Cavaliers,” the parliamentarians in their red uniforms were nicknamed “Roundheads,” many of them being Puritans who cropped their hair.
I’ll condense the story as told on this rose-garden sign and another out on the street over Brentford Bridge.
The parliamentarians were defending London. Brentford, where the tributary Brent joins the Thames, was strategic.
About 2,000 parliamentary soldiers, including 600 horsemen, had arrived in Brentford the day before. Short of supplies, the troops ransacked the shops of this market town. A small group of them came out along the westward road. At this point, where the roads from Hounslow and Isleworth met and where stood the house of a Sir Richard Wynnd, they heard horsemen approaching from Hounslow. These were part of the 12,000-strong royalist army under Prince Rupert, the king’s dashing German nephew. The landscape was then of fields enclosed by hedges. The parliamentary foot soldiers used the hedges for cover while they repelled the royalist horsemen with cannon fire.
But then the royalist foot soldiers came up. The parliamentarians were forced out of their defensive positions, and the royalists pushed to Brentford Bridge. When the parliamentary horsemen in Brentford heard the cannon fire, many of them fled back toward London, leaving the town defended by the foot soldiers. The fighting went on that afternoon in Brentford. Killed were about 20 royalists, and perhaps 50 parliamentarians, and more drowned in the Thames as they tried to flee from the royalists. Then it was the turn of the royalists to steal supplies in Brentford.
And more, about parliamentary barges that came down the river with ammunition, got bombarded by royalists at Syon House, were sunk by their crews…
In this civil war of 1642-1646, a quarter of English men became soldiers, and one in 25 of the population died. There was a truce, then a second phase of the civil war, 1648-1649. Charles I eventually lost, and lost his head.
I am green with envy at all you well organised folk who ordered the wavy chart at the
start of 2020!!! I am such a procrastinator ,and the year just slipped by so quickly( but
so loaded with trauma), and now tis November !! I MUST order the 2021 chart right now so that I don’t wander around chartless ( astronomically speaking) in the New, and hopefully better, Year !! C.F.M.
I love to have something to grumble at, and in this case the quotation is from Gilbert’s Princess Ida, not originally Patience Strong. See https://gsarchive.net/princess_ida/webop/pi_23.html.
I remember another Twilight Zone episode. A bookish bank clerk takes his lunch break in the vault, where his reading cannot be disturbed. There’s an enormous explosion and he emerges to find a nuclear attack has left the city destroyed and everyone is dead; his being in the vault has saved him.
He’s full of despair until the sees the ruins of the public library; all the books are there for the reading. He feels much better and picks up the first book. Then tragedy strikes—his glasses fall off his nose and shatter. He bursts into tears surrounded by the books he’ll never read.
Surely an example of Murphy’s Law.
if there were a sign commemorating every battle that H. sapiens was involved in, there would be nowhere to walk. The same organism that now wants to pollute Mars.
I hear you. I also have never had a day where everything goes right. One version of Murphy’s Law is that if something can go wrong, it will, and at the worst possible time. Another saying comes to mind: There are 2 ways of doing things, the right way, and the wrong way, and the right way always takes longer. That’s the nature of things I suppose. Life would be boring if everything always went smoothly.
I remember a Twilight Zone episode. A fellow died and was transported to a beautiful city filled with beautiful women, beaches, and perfect weather. All the women were friendly and eager to please. He went to a casino and played cards and won every hand. He ordered drinks for the house and commented that he was surprised that he actually made it to heaven. After winning several hands in a row, he started to get bored with winning all the time. He said to the dealer, “Heaven is great but I’m actually growing weary of everything going my way all the time.” The dealer replied, “What made you think you were in heaven?”
I didn’t realize that the English civil war killed one in 25 and that may not be factoring in indirect deaths like food shortages caused by the war disrupting supplies.i would have been an interesting alternative history of the monarchy hadn’t been restored and England had remained a sort of republic,not the world’s first as San Marino lays that claim.they are on about removing statues of Cromwell now not that I’ve ever seen any to remove as he was hardly flavour of the month with the Royal family although in world war 2 there was a tank, the Cromwell tank, named after him.
Thanks for recounting this history.
In the paragraph that begins, “About 2,000 parliamentary soldiers … ” there is a reference to “part of the 12,00-strong royalist army”. I’m guessing that should be “12,000 strong”.
History is so bloody.
It will be good to have more about the Sun, Earth, and seasons available at my fingertips over the aether, when I’m away from home and my Astronomical Calendars and Companion.
Correction made.
I may add a graohic about the sunrise and sunset times in the next hour or so.
Thanks Guy.
Here at 38 degrees north latitude, 122 degrees west longitude, the Sun rose at 5:47 am PDT from 10 June until 15 June. It’s now setting at 8:36 pm from 22 June until 2 July. Linear interpolation puts earliest sunrise on 12 June and latest sunset today, 27 June. I think of these three weeks from early June until the beginning of July as midsummer, and leave it at that.
If the sky is clear, I like to get up early and look at the sky. When astronomical dawn is before 4 am, I often sleep until the sky is getting bright, and feel disappointed. I’ve gotten to the age when getting enough sleep is more important than seeing a globular cluster, so I don’t set an alarm.
You might enjoy Mike Duncan’s podcast “Revolutions” which covered the English Civil War in fascinating detail (followed by many other revolutions). It starts here:
https://www.revolutionspodcast.com/2013/09/000-introduction.html