Winter solstice

Cloudy, beautiful morning here in east San Diego County, California, North America, and at 10:20 we positioned ourselves on the glider, facing south, to observe the solstice at 10:25.

At that moment, the Earth in its orbit around the Sun reached a place where the Sun’s perpendicular rays hit, just for an instant, the Earth at its southernmost presentation to the Sun.

It was instantaneous: the Earth orbits the sun at a speed of 66,780 miles per hour. I tried to visualize that, assuming a random position in black space where I could watch the Earth, and witness its speed, as it crossed that place where Sun rays bumped the Tropic of Capricorn, 23 ½ degrees south of the Equator. Seconds later, the rays were traveling back north across the Earth’s face toward the summer solstice, at the Tropic of Cancer, 23 ½ degrees north of the equator, where on the glider it will be June 21 or thereabouts.

At 10:25, the Earth was rotating West to East at a speed of about 1,000 miles per hour. It was orbiting the Sun at a speed of 66,780 miles per hour. The Sun and its entire solar system were orbiting in the Milky Way Galaxy at a speed of 487,353 miles per hour. Yet from the glider, it seemed so peaceful. How in the world is it, that people come to believe they are dominant?