Solstice timing

[Brigantia]

This is a very powerful week about to start and I'm a bit confused on the timing of when to celebrate Solstice. Some places are saying that the Solstice and the eclipse coincide. Well, the eclipse starts about 11 pm on Monday where I live which is technically still the 20th. So, does the Solstice start at midnite, one hour after the eclipse starts, or does it start in the Celtic tradition at sunset on Tuesday?

This may sound silly, but I''m trying to organize my solstice ritual.

Bennachta

[DJ Droood]

By about 1:15am EST Tuesday morning, the moon will begin to move into the Earth's outer shadow, or penumbra. You will need a telescope to really see this portion of show.

By about 1:33am EST Tuesday morning the moon will begin to enter the Earth's inner shadow, or umbra. This is when the moon begins to enter full eclipse. It will take about three hours for the moon to completely pass through the umbra, so during this time the moon will appear to be a coppery dark orange color, or a dark red shade.

The moon will clear Earth's umbra by a little after 5:00am EST Tuesday morning. At that point the moon will look normal once again.

The December solstice will occur at 23:38 (or 11.38pm) Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on December 21, 2010. It is also known as the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere and the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere due to the seasonal differences.

06:38 EST....

and if you stay up for another hour or so, you get the sunrise!

(all times EST-centric)

[DaRC]

Well you could look at it that the Celts started their day at sunset, rather than midnight as we currently do, so the solstice in that case would start at sunset on the 20th Dec.