01 Solstice Sunrise JCoveney

OK, there's four or five days to go to the winter solstice but at 130 degrees from Dublin according to the Photographer's Ephemeris, this morning's sunrise was within 0.2 of a degree - or a near as makes no difference! -  of its southernmost point. From 16 to 27 December, the southwards progression of the dawn along the horizon that has been underway since late June comes to a stand still or  "solstitium" as the Romans put it. After that, it will be only a few weeks to "a grand stretch in the evening"!

I went out early to Dalkey Hill to get a shot of the full moon setting over Dublin but cloud rolling in from the west kyboshed Plan A - but Plan B wasn't too bad :-). The exposure was 1/640th of a second at f5.6 and and ISO 200 using a Canon 100-400mm lens at 400mm, handheld. The main edit in Lightroom was an approximately 30% crop to make the sun even bigger in the frame.